Wild Winds Hit New Hampshire

A storm on Wednesday morning knocked down trees and caused thousands of outages around the Granite State

The storm knocked down trees and caused thousands of outages in New Hampshire, but the damage is mostly cleaned up and power has been restored to the majority of customers.

We did, however, find one weather watcher who proves, even experts can be scared stiff during a dangerous storm.
"Holy Moly, that's wind, that's a lot of wind," Lakes Region weather watcher Mike Calclough said, recalling being startled awake by the storm.

He said when he saw a large pine tree leaning toward his house, he ran for cover under his bed. Calclough stayed inside, while outside, his webcam captured the storm at about 7 a.m. rolling across Lake Winnepesaukee.

"It sounded like the house had wings and we were taking off to go somewhere," Calclough said.

In nearly three decades of weather watching, Colclough said not much has compared to this.

"There it is, right there, it went off the chart," Calclough said, pointing to his graph that recorded a 76 mph gust of wind.

Calclough says 74 mph is hurricane speed.

"It only lasted a few minutes," he said.

It was quick but powerful. The storm snapped his favorite maple tree and sent the branches flying.

"Carried it right through the air 25 feet," Calclough said.

The wind picked up his metal canoe off his dock and dropped it on the beach.

Colclough said it's not uncommon for this region to experience strong winds, and so he said the trees grow stronger than most.

"If we get hardwoods snapping, it takes a lot to do that," Calclough said.

That's why the life-long weather enthusiast calls this damage impressive.

"It's taken Irene, it took Sandy, but it couldn't take this," Calclough said, looking at his downed maple.

Local fire departments reported some downed trees and outages at the height of the storm, but officials tell NECN there was no widespread damage. Calclough said the upside to all of this is that he can use his downed maple tree as firewood next winter. 

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