By Michael White
SPECIAL TO THE EAGLE TIMES
WITH STAFF REPORTS
Police blocked Route 101 in Dublin, N.H., Thursday afternoon to allow crews to clean up the mess left behind by a tornado.
“101 is trashed, there’s multiple trees and wires down,” said police patrolman Stephen Dalterio.
“A ton of electric and tree trimming crews” responded to the area “to get this mess cleaned up as soon as possible,” Dalterio said.
During the cleanup, traffic was routed around Dublin Lake.
Just before 3 p.m., a National Weather Service Spotter reported “a funnel cloud rapidly turning,” said Meteorologist Sarah Thunberg in Gray, Maine.
A trained spotter reported “a funnel cloud rapidly turning,” said Meteorologist Sarah Thunberg in Gray, Maine.
The service’s radar backed the spotter up, showing “a rotating storm with a decent amount of lighting. All of that supports a tornado,” Thunberg said.
The Weather Service won’t be able to 100 percent confirm that a tornado touched down until one of its teams visits the area Friday and can provide a clearer picture of what happened in the area.
“It looks like, from the spotter, [the storm went] right through Keene, and we know we have some damage on route 101. So, that is where we will be looking to investigate the damage,” Thunberg said.
By the time the storm reached Manchester, it had weekend substantially, Thunberg said.
Heat Advisory
The tornado warning came at the same time the area was already under a heat advisory, and while the two issues aren’t directly related, the heat helped drive the storm.
“The heat and humidity help prime the atmosphere,” Thunberg said. The conditions provided the “necessary ingredients for a storm to be strong enough for a tornado. So, it is definitely contributing, but it is not the only factor.”
With heat advisories in place for parts of New Hampshire and Vermont, some communities are opening cooling centers.
While a heat advisory is in effect from 11 a.m. to 8 tonight, it is expected to be slightly cooler than Thursday, with the heat index value in the mid-90s, five degrees cooler than Thursday.
The Weather Service warns that the hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat-related illness. “Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun and check up on relatives and neighbors.”
In addition to the heat, a storm is expected to bring another chance for showers and thunderstorms with heavy rainfall, the National Weather Service warns.
There is a “low” to “slight” potential for the storms to “train or persist over the same area for a period of time while producing torrential rainfall. With wet conditions already in place, runoff will be rapid and capable of producing flash flooding.”
While no watches are in place, there is also a chance of thunderstorms on Saturday associated with a cold front that is expected to move across the region.
While the heat may linger today, the forecast ahead looks good, and it might be one of the best weekends of the summer, Thunberg said.
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