Warm Weather Woes Part Two

 

Journal Opinion August 27, 2025

From the Sanborn House on South Pleasant St. in Bradford to the Brock House on Route 5 in Newbury, the Hurricane of Sept. 1938 spread damage throughout the area. 

Weather stories have always been important news in local newspapers. Some of those stories are local, while others are about major weather events elsewhere. So often, the latter makes the local stories insignificant by comparison. We are lucky to live in an area infrequently subject to major storms.

However, to those whose personal welfare is impacted by a lightning strike, hail storm, flash flood, high wind, or unseasonable frost, the result may be devastating. This column will deal with those local impacts in times past.

 This is the second column to deal with weather impacts. On July 30, part one of this series was published in the Journal Opinion. It dealt with historic heat waves, droughts, pest infestations, polio, and forest fires in the period before 1970. That article is available on my blog at larrycoffin.blogspot.com.

Since we began gardening in Bradford in 1969, the growing season has expanded, with gardens now planted several weeks before Memorial Day and often continuing until early October without freezing temperatures.

There is little that is more discouraging to farmers and gardeners than frosts outside of the regular late May to mid-September growing season.

 Last month, I wrote about the cold weather in 1816, when there were freezing temperatures every month of the year and snow on Mt. Moosilauke twice in July and three times in August.

The history of Newbury mentions a cold snap on June 10-11, 1773, during which an “uncommon great frost” killed a considerable part of the corn crop. On June 11, there were two inches of snow.

Early June frosts are not that uncommon, but the likelihood diminishes as the weeks go by. When they happen, they can have a devastating impact on early vegetable and fruit crops.

 Local newspapers reported on June frosts. The United Opinion reported that on June 7, 1878, “a frost cut down the corn in Caledonia County.”  In 1914, Haverhill farmers were “discouraged with the weather” having suffered a hard frost on June 1. 

Killing frosts have also occurred in July. Some examples include frosts on July 4, 1844 and July 11, 1898. The heavy frost of July 10, 1895 reportedly injured crops extensively in Corinth. 

Frost sometimes hit in unexpected ways. Frosts that do occur are often spotty, hitting one field, garden, or area but not another. In Aug 1923, serious crop damage occurred in the southern portion of Vermont, while northern portions escaped. In late August 1965, “highlands which normally escape the first frost were hit hard, while areas in the fog-shrouded valleys escaped.”

In that same way, summer rainstorms may hit one community and skip over neighboring ones. Warmer climatic changes have caused the atmosphere to be more storm-prone with additional moisture content.

When Tropical storm Irene sit in 2011 it brought over 4 inches of rain statewide, with some areas received up to 7 inches. In July 2023, up to 8 inches of rain fell in central Vermont. 

In reviewing the news of flooding from summer storms in New Hampshire and Vermont in times past, amounts of less than 3 inches were considered heavy and newsworthy.

 One of the earliest reported summer cloudbursts occurred in Newbury in June 1795. The storm caused a torrent of water to rush down Harriman’s Brook and created a deep channel on Newbury’s common.

The so-called Great Vermont Flood occurred in the vicinity of Woodstock on July 22, 1811. Observers described it “by far the most memorable flood…in violence anything of its kind ever known in these parts.”

Damage from a July 1877 cloudburst in Bath caused a freight train to plunge deep into Poor’s Creek, which had been “swollen to a rushing torrent.”

In Newbury, on the morning of June 29, 1922, “the flood gates of heaven were opened, the rain descended in torrents. Old inhabitants who harken back to Noah’s time claim that this down-pour beats all.”

On July 8, 1932, a short-lived summer storm caused a brook in South Ryegate to overflow causing damage to crops, gardens, highways and tracks of both the Montpelier and Wells River and the Canadian Pacific railroads.

The United Opinion described a summer storm in June 1952 as “Town roads throughout the area suffered severe damage by water Sunday afternoon when a prolonged downpour…touched off flash flood that overtaxed normal stream beds and road culverts.”

Nearby roads were flooded, and “many farms showed damaged fields and crops.” Stones, gravel, and weed seeds are often deposited on farm fields during such floods.

Hail is a destructive feature of summer storms. The following are some of the most tumultuous. In July 1843, a storm struck Bradford with hailstones the size of robin’s eggs and larger. One pellet was reported to be over 8 inches in circumference. “Scarcely a house in town that did not have broken glass.” There was also significant crop and fruit tree damage.

In July 1856, the Orange County Journal reported on a storm that hit St. Johnsbury village “with stones of five or six inches in circumference…leaving hardly a pane of glass left in many houses.”

On the afternoon of May 2, 1899, a storm hit West Corinth, breaking glass and shredding gardens and crops.

Storms such as this were especially damaging to apple and other fruit crops, with damage depending on the stage of growth of the fruit.  It was not unusual for apples to be advertised “without hail damage.”

The most unusual hailstones fell in southwestern Vermont on July 7, 1950. “The hail pellets came loaded, with many of them containing small metallic fragments.”  It was thought that the metal was picked up when the storm passed over a coke plant in nearby New York.

The hail storm that hit northeastern Vermont on August 18, 1969 left hail the size of golf ball and deposited what looked like “a new layer of snow, exceeding a foot deep” in some spots.

Summer storms often include lightning.  Buildings, trees, cattle, and even individuals were often struck with devastating results. High structures, such as church steeples or taller trees, were likely targets. 

One of the largest fires caused by lightning occurred on Sept 26, 1892 in Wells River. The resulting fire consumed 3 major Main Street buildings, including the Coosuck House, as well as 3 adjacent homes. The area was labelled “the burnt district.”

On July 29, 1933, the summer home of Sarah Hoyt, one of the finest homes at the far end of Orford village, was hit by lightning and suffered widespread damage.   Fire companies from Orford and Fairlee were able to keep the fire from spreading.

On August 30, 1945, Bradford’s Town Hall on South Main was destroyed by fire. It had served the town since it was built in 1857. It is believed that a bolt of lightning hit it, starting a fire that went unnoticed until it was well established. 

Less damaging, but no less frightening to Bradford’s Merrit Davis family was when, on August 8, 1938, lightning struck their home. The lightning entered by way of the dining room, resulting in a wrecked china closet, broken windows, and “splinters shot across the room.”

Knowing that lightning could enter homes along electrical or telephone wires or pipes, as children we were warned to avoid using the telephone or household water and stay away from trees during electrical storms.

 High winds often accompany electrical storms. They were especially damaging when trees and crops were in full leaf.

On August 23, 1969, “a sudden wind storm ripped through Newbury, hitting with great force trees along Newbury’s Main Street…great maples seemed to be singled out for destruction.”

Sometimes high winds developed into tornadoes. It is estimated that Vermont gets one tornado yearly, while New Hampshire may have two.  Slight by comparison to other parts of the nation. 

On July 27, 1848, a tornado hit Windsor, VT and Cornish, NH, leaving a fifteen-rod wide path of destruction. One house was completely demolished, killing a woman and her three children. While injuries from tornadoes are common, fatalities are not.

John Forsyth of Newbury narrowly escaped injury when a tornado struck “Beadle’s Bridge” in South Newbury on July 4, 1866. He and his horse were on the bridge when the storm hit, but they made it to shore. “Looking back for the bridge, it was gone.” High winds blew apart a later restored covered bridge on Sept. 4, 1979.

Danville’s North Star described a tornado that hit rural portions of Hanover on July 23, 1880.  “Nothing approaching this fury was ever known in this region.” The number of injuries would have been greatly increased if it had hit the populated center.  

A “baby tornado” visited Newbury on August 16, 1936, leaving significant local damage. On September 28, 1938, a tornado “did all kinds of damage to the town of Lyme.” Barns were unroofed, houses damaged, and many trees toppled.

The workers on the Union Village Dam ran for cover when a tornado hit in May 1949. “Hiram Judd, boss carpenter, grasped a 4 x 6 ft panel” to hold himself down.”

One or more small tornados caused considerable local damage on August 11, 1966. Farm property on both sides of the Connecticut River “were the heaviest losers in the encounter.” The United Opinion front page article described damage to power lines, farm buildings, homes, and roads that were blocked by fallen trees.

Damage varied from town to town. The storm that hit South Newbury with full force that afternoon “seemed to be more in the nature of hurricane winds, followed by an electrical storm.”

In the West Indies, the natives refer to hurricanes as the “evil spirit.” Northern New England has not received the kind of annual direct hurricane hits regularly experienced by southeastern areas of the nation. 

The Great Colonial Hurricane of August 25, 1635, was not replicated until the Great September Gale of 1815. The storm’s impact was felt in the southeastern section of New Hampshire. 

In Oct 1846, another hurricane had a more direct hit on the area. The North Star “understood that in the vicinity of Haverhill, N.H., barns were unroofed, sheds blown down, and fences almost without number laid prostrate.”

The September Hurricane of 1938 was one of the most destructive storms to strike the Northeast, with 680 Northeast residents losing their lives, thousands injured, or left homeless. With little warning, the storm charged north along the Connecticut River and then veered northwest across the Green Mountain with Burlington in its sight.

The local area lay in the windy eastern danger zone. Rainfall, added to the significant rain of the previous week, caused considerable flood damage. Some towns even suffered greater flood damage than they had in the historical flood of 1927.

The Sept. 23, 1938 edition of The United Opinion described the storm as it hit the area. “Power lines were taken down by falling trees and light and power were completely gone when an early darkness set in. Roofs were ripped off and tossed aside like kindling wood, and hard old maples were uprooted like field flowers.”

The Woodsville Times reported that the main street of Wells River “looked like an upside-down forest.” In many communities, schools were closed for up to two weeks. Surrounding towns reported over 100 buildings with significant damage.

 Residents began to repair the damage, but the damage to orchards and woodlots was either permanent or took decades to recover. There was “a windthrow” of billions of board feet of lumber, some splintered beyond use. One positive result of the recovery was increased employment at a time when the area suffered from the Great Depression. 

During 1954-55, Vermont and New Hampshire suffered damage from the remnants of several tropical storms. Although not hit directly, they suffered significant wind and/or rain damage. Beyond the time period of this article, Vermont was impacted by additional tropical storms, including Agnes and Irene. 

To the various disasters described in this two-part series could be added the personal turmoil experienced by locals during the warmer months. From the tragedy of drownings to the inconvenience of poison ivy to heat exhaustion, summer brings its special problems.

There seems no doubt that climate change will increase the number of warm weather woes experienced by both locals and others around the world. Unlike in times past, modern forecasts give us adequate time to prepare.