On June 9, 1953, the Worcester tornado obliterated its namesake town. The death toll was staggering, capping one of the most lethal tornado seasons to date. For many people across the country, the disaster confirmed their suspicions that the weather had gone haywire—and atomic bomb testing was to blame. In the 1950s, an international controversy raged concerning the possibility that nuclear explosions were triggering extreme weather like droughts, frosts, and tornadoes. The Worcester tornado became the most notorious example of “atom weather,” a disaster that seemed neither natural nor human, but one in which the two had become indistinguishable.