FULL VIDEO OF PROLONGED DAMAGING DOWNBURST IN HAVERHILL, MA - DOWNBURST LASTS OVER 3 MINUTES...ESTIMATED WINDS TO 65 MPH

I couldn't post this video and these pictures as it occurred or immediately after because I lost power for several hours after the storm.  In my years of chasing after big thunderstorms in Upstate New York and New England, I'd found some good ones.  Big hail, lots of lightning, funnel clouds...but never a prolonged damaging downburst wind like the one that moved through my hometown of Haverhill, MA, on Friday, June 27, 2008, lasting nearly 3 minutes and 30 seconds and gusting to an estimated 65 mph.  The video featured here was shot during the storm - beginning about 30 seconds prior to the downburst event, and lasting all the way to the end.  At the height of the downburst, there was so much going on that I had trouble figuring out what to focus on...I didn't want to miss anything, and as it turns out, I still missed the toppling of my neighbor's "Green Monster" replica in his backyard, but it's obvious that it's there one minute and down the next.  To actually live through this storm was a remarkable experience - I've seen video of prolonged downbursts in other amateur video before, but now I have my own!  The pictures - aside from the two of the storm approaching - were shot immediately after its passage, illustrating some of the damage done.  Numerous trees were downed, and the one pictured below was about 18 inches in diameter, bringing down power lines as it fell and closing Route 97 in both directions for hours.  If any other correspondents on National Weather Online got pictures/video of the storms, post them!  I uploaded this video to YouTube, then inserted the embed code to my post here in order to get it to show in the post.

Pictures of the storm as it approached, taken from Route 110 in Methuen at the Haverhill line:

Video of the storm moving into Haverhill from the northwestern sky:

Video of the prolonged damaging downburst:

Pictures taken after the storm:

Comments

[Ryan Breton]

Great video and pictures of the storm, Matt! I will try to post mine later today before I go away on vacation.