High wind downed trees in Northwood; large hail fell in Northfield; power was knocked out in a number of locations; and, fortunately, nobody was hurt as strong thunderstorms swept through New Hampshire on Tuesday.
While the localized damage was notable, it’s not uncommon for a series of small but strong storms to sweep through the region from west to east on a warm summer day.
“This is a pretty usual storm as far as severe weather goes,” said Taylor Patterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine, which covers most of New Hampshire.
Unfortunately, from a precipitation standpoint the storm was a downer – very little rain fell, leaving much of the state in drought-like conditions.
Wind gusts as high as 60 mph were reported. The storm did the most reported damage in Portland, Maine, where a strong downburst capsized boats and damaged buildings along the city’s waterfront.
Nearly 4,000 electric customers in Maine were without power at one point, mostly in Portland. Scattered power outages were reported in New Hampshire.
A number of large trees were overturned along Northwood Lake, as the storm traveled roughly the same path as a 2008 tornado. Tuesday’s storm did not seem to produce any tornadoes, however – damage was caused by linear winds rather than twisting winds.
Hail as big as a dime, or even bigger, was reported in several areas, including parts of Northfield.
The size of hail depends on the strength of winds traveling up into thunderclouds. Hail is formed when ice accumulates around dust or other particles in clouds, and the longer a hailstone stays in the cloud before weight makes it fall, the larger it will be.
“The stronger the winds, the longer they can hold the hail up and the more it can grow,” Patterson said.
