Thunderstorm Wind in Carroll County, New Hampshire

A very strong downburst from a thunderstorm caused substantial damage along a one half mile wide and six mile long path. Property damage included 30 homes with severe damage, 150 other homes with lesser amounts of damage and several cars crushed by felled trees. One hundred acres of trees were leveled with an additional 40 acres sustaining damage. Damage estimates include $1.5 million to private property and $50,000 to public property. Not included in those figures are the cleanup costs, utility damage and the value of the trees. Only one injury was reported when a woman broke both her forearms warding off a falling object.

A supercell storm passed along the northern shore of Lake Winnipesaukee on Saturday, producing at least one waterspout over the lake as well as damaging wind gusts over land. Local emergency personnel noted the very isolated nature of damage with this storm with the survey finding no other damage along its path in that area. Approximately 14 trees, most of which were large, healthy pines, were uprooted or otherwise downed which impacted a seasonal lodge site near Winter Harbor and North Main Street. Four camps and two vehicles were damaged or destroyed as a result. Witnesses describe a deluge of heavy rainfall followed by a rush of strong winds which brought down the trees in one direction, consistent with a microburst. Meanwhile, a trained observer about 3.5 miles to the southeast of the microburst never exceeded 10 mph of wind despite being almost directly under the core of the storm.

A long tracked severe thunderstorm and associated microburst reached the Moultonbourgh Neck area of Lake Winnipesaukee just after 3pm. The damaging winds downed over 200 trees on the western shore of the lake, with uprooted and snapped trees. The outflow winds then fanned across Moultonbourgh Bay, damaging trees on remote islands and the eastern shore of the lake where another area of concentrated damage occurred along the immediate shoreline. Another 50 or so trees fell in this |area. Overall 5 buildings were damaged but no injuries were reported. The storm continued to move eastward with continued sporadic damage though Ossipee before it reached Effingham, NH.