News

Into the Eye of the Storm

By Dylan Marsh
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT-The storm, which traveled 4.8 miles from Charlestown to Claremont, formed a small tornado for a short period of time. The National Weather Service confirmed that the tornado lasted for around six minutes between 6:22 through 6:28 pm on Monday night. The path of the tornado continued for roughly a mile, with a width of 330 yards, along the area of Routes 11 and 12 between the two towns.

In a video uploaded to Youtube by Wes Carter, the twister can be seen touching down along the road, taking down trees and powerlines in its path. After the tornado passed Carter, as well as a number of other cars, it continued down the road, winding around fallen trees. No tornado warning had been issued earlier in the day.

“We saw the black sky and knew there were some problems. We had no idea what we were coming into. It was a pretty scary experience,” said Phillip Methot, who lives along Route 11.

NWS utilizes the Enhanced Fujita or EF scale, to document and record not only wind speed, but also the extent of damage for any tornado. The Enhanced Fujita scale ranges from 0-5.

NWS found that the tornado in Charlestown ranged between an EF-0 to EF-1, with wind reaching up to 90 miles per hour. The high winds are estimated to have knocked down somewhere in the vicinity of 1,000 trees and necessitated the replacement of around 20 utility poles. Houses, as well as cars, in the area were damaged, with debris and smaller structures were also blown about. Luckily, there were zero injuries reported due to the storm.

“Ironically, I owned the property where all those trees came down, and in the 80’s I wanted to cut them down. The state wouldn’t let me and they said if I cut them down it would be a 5,000 dollar fine and I would have to replace them,” said Methot.

While Route 12 saw the majority of the damage, some trees and larger branches crashed down in Claremont. A large tree in the driveway of Claremont resident Karl Knight fell, narrowly missing his truck parked just outside his home on South Street. Areas on the outskirts of Claremont remained virtually unaffected by the destruction of the storm, aside from heavy rain and winds.

“We live up on a hill so we didn’t really know what was happening. It didn’t affect us at all but when we came down into town it felt like something out of a movie,’’ said Claremont resident Trish Lynn.

According to the historical tornado weather index, Sullivan County saw a tornado on July 9, 1962 in Claremont, that traveled a distance of 5 miles, causing an estimated $3,000 in property damages.

“They do happen in May. It’s the beginning of the season, they’re a little more common in June. It’s a little less common in May,but they do occur,” Donny Dumont, with the National Weather Service, told WMUR on Tuesday morning.

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