Friday 15 July 2005 - "All day yesterday, the Weather Channel had all of New Hampshire colored red for severe thunderstorms. There had been a couple radio weather alerts during the day for areas north and south of us, but our sky never even looked like rain. It was a surprise, therefore, when around 2100 we started seeing lightning flashes both southwest and north of us. There was some very impressive cloud to cloud lightning for awhile, and lots of general flashes in the clouds. We closed up everything and hunkered down for a big storm, but the real weather stayed north and south of us. There were a couple lightning strikes relatively close, but no wind and very little rain. Everything had moved past us by 2230. Precipitation 0.054". It cleared overnight, and the day was blue and calm, with low humidity. Low 54.3F, high 82.6F. Not a lot of bugs, but deerflies obnoxious. Only a few fireflies."
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Whenever the National Weather Service interrupts the radio programming to warn of the approach of a severe storm, the computerized "weatherman" voice always recommends that we stay indoors and away from windows. Good advice. Only problem for us is that it is impossible to stay away from windows. Our one-room Camp measures 16 feet wide by 23 feet long, and over half of the total wall space is taken up by windows and doors. About the farthest we can stay away from a window is 8 feet -- well, maybe 16 feet if we huddled tight against a wall between two windows. No matter; neither gives us much leeway to escape from severe winds or close lightning.
So, what do we do? Sally - who is not afraid of thunder, but who has a strong visceral reaction to sudden noises - usually puts in ear plugs, dons a sleep mask (so that the lightning flashes don't tell her to anticipate the thunder that she can't hear because of the ear plugs), lays on the bed, and often goes to sleep. I -- who never was afraid of storms until we had our "tornado" (that's another weather story I'll tell some time) -- get the big outside door closed, make sure all the windows are as firmly latched as possible, then hunker down in my chair as far away from windows as I can get, and wait for the weather to go by. Thankfully, our storms are usually fast movers, and life normally only stops for an hour or so. Then the windows and door are opened, and we go back to whatever we were doing (or not doing) when the storm struck.
There really isn't much to worry about. Camp has stood since 1927, and as far as we know it has never been struck by lightning or suffered severe damage from wind, rain, or hail. (Deep snows did crack the roof beams one severe winter.) Although we have regular thunderstorms, most summers go by with no tornado watches and only occasional severe weather warnings that stay in effect for more than an hour or so. The summer weather south of the White Mountains -- "below the notches" -- is almost always worse than in the North Country. Having pointed that out to you, I have to admit to at least a little anxiety every time the skies above our field blacken, the winds start to blow, and the rain begins to pound on our aluminum roof. It is always a palpable relief when the last thunder claps fade over beyond the Mahoosucs, the rain lets up, and the skies begin to clear to daytime sun or night-time stars.
I think the weather unease -- unwarranted as history has proven it to be -- comes in part just because we really have no place to go and nothing reasonable to do when severe conditions develop. Our life on the Hill is different in all respects from what the pioneers of the 19th and early 20th centuries experienced -- in all respects, that is, but one. Like them, the weather is just something we have to take as it comes. If it is hot and humid, we can't do much but slow down and occasionally douse our hands and faces with cold spring water. When it's very cold, our only recourse is to wear more clothes and sit closer to the wood stove. When the wind whips down our field and we hear trees falling in the forest, we just stay out of the woods until it stops. And when the thunder rolls and the lightning flashes? Well, we try to stay away from windows.
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