A tornado warning was issued for Rockingham County in Southern N.H. Thursday afternoon when a rotation was detected in a storm between Hampton and Portsmouth.
“Basically what we’re indicating now is right before we issued the tornado warning Doppler radar indicated a strong rotation just north of the town of Exeter,” Mike Kistner from the National Weather Service said.
The NWS also received reports of golf ball-sized hail Stratham N.H. from the same storm.
Residents of Portsmouth were told to find a safe room away from windows on the lowest floor of their house. City officials said they had a very limited warning of the storm.
“The city is covered by a black cloud, the wind is blowing that crowd in a northeast direction over the city. As of yet I haven’t seen anything that would be described as a tornado but there has been constant thunder and at least one bolt of lightning,” Acting Portsmouth City Manager Robert Sullivan said.
The tornado warning expired at 4:45 p.m. Thursday afternoon.