The New Hampshire Gazette

A TORNADO.

READING. North Parish, June 16.

On Thursday last between 3 and 4 o'clock, P. M. a cloud, attended with thunder and lightning, passed us to the northward. Suddenly the wind shifted, blew with rather more than common violence from the northeast, brought back the cloud, which poured down upon us a heavy shower of rain, mixed with hail. The thunder and lightning would have been thought severe, if something more alarming had not arrested the attention of the people—After the storm had continued about ten minutes, the wind from the northeast abated for a short space: then instantly blew, with increased violence, for about one minute, from the northwest, then abated again, for a few seconds, as if it rested to collect all its strength: then veered to the southwest, and blew with a fury beyond what the oldest man living among us ever experienced before. This last and most violent effort of the tornado continued about one minute. Had it continued much longer, or been increased but a little more, it is probable the strongest buildings, and the most sturdy trees, must have yielded to its violence. But as it was, it spread destruction around us. A great number of our houses, open sheds, tables, &c. were either overturned or dashed in pieces. Several barns were either blown down, rent from their foundations, or otherwise damaged. The windows of a few houses were burst in; rail fences in general were blown down, and even stone-walls, in some instances, raised nearly to their foundations. Trees innumerable of every kind and size were either torn from their roots or broken in pieces and scattered through the air. Many large trees were broken in the midst, and their tops hurled many rods from their stumps. For a short space the whole atmosphere seemed to be crowded with leaves, limbs of trees, and various kinds of moveable substances—some of which were driven with violence against the houses, and added not a little to the terror of the astonished inhabitants. But, through the goodness of that Benevolent Being, who rules the whirlwind and directs the storm, no life of either man or beast among us was lost. The first ravages of this hurricane among us were about two miles to the northwest of the meeting-house in this place.—Its general course was from northwest to southwest. Its mean width about one mile.