"The thin horizontal strip of brown snaking across this NASA satellite image is the trail of destruction caused by a <a href=""http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=50854"" target=""_blank"">tornado on June 1</a> as it tore across southwest and south-central Massachusetts.  It continued for 39 miles (63 kilometers), says NASA, and in some places measured half-a-mile in diameter. The WMO reports that it was one of the most active tornado seasons on record. 157 people lost their lives -- the deadliest in the U.S. since 1947 -- in <a href=""http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/05/29/hunter.tornado.joplin/index.html"">Joplin, Missouri</a> in May."
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