Five Miles (8km) From My House

This Spring, I chased tornadoes. This Summer, they're chasing me!

We had a wild bit of weather here in NH on Thursday with heavy storms and an F2 tornado:

"The National Weather Service has confirmed that an [EF2] tornado did touch down in the state of New Hampshire yesterday, including the town of Deerfield, where a woman was killed... FEMA is currently in the state making their preliminary assessment of the damage suffered. Officials say there is about an eight-mile path of destruction, beginning in Pittsfield and extending into Alton."

Actually, it turned out to be a 20 mile path. A dozen homes were destroyed and 100 damaged.





Raw video of some of the damage:
http://www.wmur.com/video/16987202/index.html

Photos and slideshow:
http://www.wmur.com/slideshow/16981648/detail.htmlindex.html?currentSlide=6&taf=man

http://www.wmur.com/slideshow/slideshows/16981648/detail.html

I know you don't think "tornadoes" when someone says "New Hampshire," but NH averages 1.6 tornadoes a year, meaning we normally get one or two every year or two. (Those of you in the midwest rolling you eyes--- remember that NH is a very small State.)

NH was among the first places colonized by Europeans in what we now call the Northeast United States, so those settlers were among the first Westerners to experience tornadoes. In fact, TornadoChaser.Net reports that colonial Governor and weather buff John Winthrop wrote what may be history's first description of a tornado, in July 1643:

Winthrop, who was ever conscious of the weather, recorded that there was a sudden gust in northeastern Massachusetts and coastal New Hampshire. According to Winthrop this “gust” blew down many trees, filled the air with dust, lifted up a meetinghouse in Newbury, and killed one Indian. Because there was no weather technology in that time period we have no way of knowing whether this “gust” was a true tornado or not.

A tornado, quickly passing by in a violent minute or so, might very well be described as a gust.

The rough terrain of NH means the tornadoes here are usually at the lower end of the strength scale. Much more common are microbursts and 'straight line winds' that actually can be just as damaging as a true tornado. [Tornadoes are rotating winds that shear and grind their way across the land; straight line winds deliver blunt force trauma simultaneously across a large-area.]

The State has witnessed just one known F4 tornado, with none higher. F2s are relatively rare anywhere--- only about 11% of all tornadoes are EF2s. So, Thursday's EF2 here a doubly-rare thing: a somewhat unusual tornado type in an area where tornadoes themselves are somewhat unusual. You'd go a long time between seeing F2s in New Hampshire.

In fact, you don't often "see" tornadoes here at all. Unlike the plains States with their enormous sight lines, NH's heavy forests and hills mean the tornadoes here are hard to spot until they burst upon you. Many of the eyewitnesses here this week said that by the time they processed what they were seeing, the wind was upon them. No one reported being frightened initially--- there simply wasn't time.

Imagine what that's like: You look up, see trees and other objects flying through the air, and then you're in the middle of it, just like that.

There's no system here of tornado sirens or similar general warnings, except those issued by radio by the NWS. If you're not listening to a broadcast or watching an online weather feed, there's no way to tell that a tornado warning has been issued. Just another one of New England's little weather surprises!


It's trivial compared to the damage just a short distance away, but we lost several trees here where I live, five miles (8km) from the center of the storm's path. (See pic above.) Still, even here the wind was strong enough to break the trunk of one 18" (45cm) thick hardwood and several smaller pines. Fortunately, the trees did no damage as they fell.

Friday, a day after the storm, was beautiful: a cool, dry, sunny and gorgeous New England summer day. Saturday looks even better.

I love it here! :)