Frightening Lightning and Horrific Hail in Lumsden
Image: Felix Mittermeier, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Imagine it: a beautiful, summer day on the white, sandy beaches of Lumsden, Newfoundland. You can hear the gentle surf and the sound of children playing.
Then, as if out of nowhere, the sky turns black and lightning seems to tear the clouds apart unleashing an impossible torrent of ice. There’s nowhere to go, there’s no escape — the storm is all around you. It’s destroying everything you own and threatening everyone you love.
Nearly a century ago the people of Lumsden didn’t have to imagine it.
They lived it.
A Beautiful Day in Lumsden
Lumsden Beach
It was June 26, 1930 and the weather in Lumsden was beautiful.
It seemed like a perfect early summer day; the sun was shining as a gentle breeze moved across the beach. It was a welcome change from the cool, wet ‘capelin weather’ and fog of late spring that plagued the northeast coast.
The whole town seemed to be taking advantage of the good weather. Some tended to their newly sewn vegetable gardens while children played in the grass. The nearby fishing ground was alive with small boats as the sun sparkled off the water.
It was the kind of summer day that is all-too rare in Newfoundland and especially welcome in June. It was too good to pass up and, as the people of Lumsden knew, too good to last.
What they didn’t know was just how quickly —and tragically— it was about to change.
At about 3pm, without warning the beautiful day stopped.
The Worst Storm
Before anyone understood what was happening a powerful storm was baring down on them. In mere seconds, it seemed, the sky turned a horrible churning black. Lightning ripped overhead and the ground seemed to tremble under ear-splitting thunder.
Mothers scooped up their children and began running. Realizing they would never make it to their houses, they took shelter in whatever building was close by.
Those in boats did their best to head for shore. They were afraid of the lightning, of course; they knew an open boat was one of the last places they’d want to be in an electoral storm but, as it turns out, the lightning wasn’t going to be their biggest concern.
It was the hail.
Carried on hurricane force winds, the storm walloped the town with ice. There was an unimaginable, unbelievable hail. Some of it seemed the size of snowballs; more of it even bigger, maybe weighing as much as 10lbs.
Regardless of size, the powerful hail smashed through windows, destroyed fishing premises, broke roofs and overturned as many as 30 boats.
It was pandemonium.
Fortunately, the chaos was short-lived. After a few minutes, the wind and ice subsided, the sky cleared and the sunshine returned. The scene greeting the 400 citizen of the town was vastly different than the one they’d left behind minutes before.
Their home was in ruin.
The Evening Telegram, June 27, 1930, MUN Digital Archives.
Worse than that, not everyone had survived the storm.
In the height of the disaster, ten men were thrown into the water. With the help of bystanders, seven were rescued — three weren’t so lucky.
Baxter Goodyear, Roland Cuff and Samuel Goodyear who were trying to moor their boat between Lumsden South and Southern Island, died.
Those who saw the tragedy unfold recalled how the men had clung to their vessel as long as they could before succumbing to the barrage of ice. They fell into the ocean and drowned. Their bodies were recovered a short time later.
The Aftermath
When the people of Lumsden took stock, they realized virtually every building in the town had sustained some sort of damage. Roofs were gone, and every north facing window in the town had been broken.
The town was ill-equipped to deal with so much destruction. The following week the Colonial Government arranged aid for the community and a ship carrying the necessary gear for repairs was deployed.
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When I first read about the Lumsden storm and the accounts of 10lb pieces of hail I dismissed it as a gross exaggeration. A piece of hail anywhere near 10lbs would be a solid contender for the largest piece of hail ever recorded.
Amid the destruction, weighing the ice couldn’t have been a priority — 10lbs was likely an estimate and possibly a bad one. Only days later, competing reports described the hail as small snowballs — decidedly not 10lbs.
But, what if the initial accounts were close to right? What if some of the ice was closer to 10lbs?
It’s not often I write my own tall tales here but I tried to imagine (keyword: imagine) an alternate scenario that might result in large pieces of ice pelting a Newfoundland town in June.
So I thought, what if the larger chunks of ice weren’t hail at all?
In June the waters of Newfoundland’s northeast coast often have disintegrating icebergs. The surface of the water is littered with tiny pieces of glacial ice.
What if the Lumsden weather event was so powerful it managed to pick up the small pieces of surface ice and throw them at the town?
I guess, what I’m talking about is an uncommonly powerful waterspout.
According to Environment Canada a waterspout is a rotating column of vapour and water which extends from thundercloud to the water's surface. It looks like a tornado but is generally smaller and weaker with winds from 40 to 80 kilometres per hour.
Waterspouts are seen in Newfoundland from time to time. There was video of a waterspout captured in 2020 off St. George’s.
Waterspouts have been known to lift objects from the water, carry them to land and then drop them. According to an article published on ScienceLine, depending on how fast the winds are whipping, anything that is within about one yard of the surface of the water (ranging from sailboats to fish) can be lifted into the air. When the waterspout breaks down, the objects are dropped to earth… The phenomenon has been known to cause fish to fall from the sky.
It’s a pretty rare occurrence, of course.
So, could a powerful waterspout triggered by an intense storm have lifted bits of iceberg ice and thrown them at Lumsden, amidst a barrage of hail?
Well, its a weird world and all kinds of strange things happen but I can offer no evidence that it occurred in this case. It’s purely a flight of fancy.
Pragmatically, I wonder whether the chilly late June waters would have sustained the development of a waterspout strong enough to pick up and carry pieces of ice… assuming, of course, there was even any ice in the area to pick up.
That said, the development of even snowball-sized hail would have required a powerful storm and impressive updraft…
Outside of Lumsden
While Lumsden was particularly hard hit, it wasn’t the only community to bare the brunt of the June 26th storm — severe weather plagued the entire east coast of the island.
Harbour Grace
At about 6pm in Harbour Grace the storm knocked out phone lines, and destroyed electrical transformers knocking out power to much of the town.
Bay Roberts
Between 6:30 and 8:30, the Bay Roberts Guardian reported, two electrical storms, in the area.
During the storms Mrs. Esau Kelly, of Coley’s Point, was struck by lightning in her home. Her table was overturned, and she required medical assistance. Also in Coley’s Point, a boy “while sitting on the doorstep of his home had one of his fingers struck by lightning and injured.”
Lightning struck a home in Bay Roberts East, causing considerable damage. According to The Guardian, the lightning passed underneath the corner of a stable and shot about 18 ft. to the corner of the house, entered the front room and tore away a part of the ceiling and clapboard, damaging the contents of the house.
St. John’s
The Daily News in St. John’s reported that, “A short-lived electric storm of great intensity took one life and did various damage in the city.” At about 8:30 a gentleman named James Clark rushed to the telephone to call his wife. He wanted to remind her to not to use the device during the storm. In the process of tempting to save her, he was struck by lightning and killed. His sister, who was standing near him at the time, was badly burned.
Across the city phone lines were knocked out, transformers were blown, and at least one house was hit by lightning.
Pouch Cove
In Pouch Cove, near St. John’s, one man was killed when he was struck by lightning when he was standing in his doorway. According to those present, he had opened the door to see whether the storm had passed and, clearly, it hadn’t.
Another gentleman in the settlement was badly burned in his home when lightning struck.
Outer Cove
In nearby Outer Cove the storm lead to a landslide that buried a boat launch under tons of debris.
Word of Serious Storm Spreads
As terrible as the storms were, when news media off the island picked up the story it appeared even worse.
According to the Newfoundland Weekly (published in Boston), a story filed with the Associated Press said that “almost a dozen persons were killed, 30 fishing vessels were lost, and thousands of dollars of damage done.”
These reports were picked up by news outlets and caused great concern among Newfoundlanders no longer living on the island. The Weekly began fielding calls from expatriates. The paper, believing the stories exaggerated, contacted the Colonial Government for clarification.
The following is the government’s statement:
“Electrical Storm on Thursday evening killed George Diamond living at Shoe Cove, one mile east of Pouch Cove. Two other men in Pouch Cove burned, but not seriously.
James Clarke, aged 37, South Side (St. John’s) killed. A house near the Cross Roads, St. John’s, struck and damaged, but no person injured. Telephones in the vicinity of St. John’s put out of order, but everything readjusted on Friday evening.
Lumsden, North and South, in the district of Bonavista visited by thunder and lightning and hail storm on Thursday evening; very large hailstones, some estimated at ten pounds, destroyed roofs and window glass of all dwellings, upsetting thirty boats, with loss of three men on board. The victims are Baxter Goodyear, married, with three children; Roland Cuff, married, with five children, and Samuel Goodyear, unmarried. The government is sending forward supplies to meet needs in Lumsden.”
Thankfully, the official tally was short of the dozen deaths reported in the AP article, but the account was horrific nonetheless.
Damage was widespread and costly to repair.
A Summer of Storms
Unfortunately, the storms of 1930 didn’t end in June. The island experienced deadly thunder and lightning events throughout the summer.
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Newfoundland may be famous for its persistent ‘RDF’ but on occasion, things can decidedly more unsettled — in the form of tornados.
According to Rodney Barney (quoted in 2011), “Climatologically, Newfoundland can expect one tornado (usually an F0) every 2 to 3 years.”
An F0 tornado has windspeed of 40-72mph and tends to cause only minor damage.
There have been documented tornados in Newfoundland communities including Trinity, Gander Bay, Bishop’s Falls and Buchans.
There have probably been tornados in the sparsely inhabited (and less closely observed) interior of the province too that have failed to come to anyone’s attention.
In July an electrical storm in St. Brendan’s, Bonavista Bay was responsible for the death of two people. On July 25th, 1930 the Harbor Grace Standard reproduced a message to the Marine and Fisheries Department from the operator at St. Brendan’s. It read:
A sad accident occurred at 5:30 yesterday evening during heavy thunder and lightning storm which raged from midnight. James Bynes aged 79 and William Corbett aged 17, were instantly killed in their home by lightning. Woman suffered no injury and very little damage done to house.
In August, after a heavy storm in Holyrood/St. John’s the Harbor Grace Standard reported:
We have experienced more electrical storms recently than for some years fact our older people say they cannot remember having so many storms within such a space of time.
It was a terrible summer, evidently.
Newfoundland Storms Today
Thunder and lightning storms continue to make the news from time to time in Newfoundland, especially when someone like Twitter user @mharris7173 is fast enough with a camera. Check out their capture of lightning striking near Eastport Beach in the summer of 2022:
Scary as that must have been, I can’t imagine the next-level shock and terror experienced at Lumsden in 1930. Fortunately, that kind of event seems to be a rarity in Newfoundland — and that’s a track record I’d be quite happy to have the island maintain.
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Man Killed at St. John’s, Harbor Grace Standard, June 27, 1930
Hail and Lightning Storm Smites Lumsden, The Evening Telegram, June 27, 1930
Tragedies Follow Severe Electric Storms, Daily News, June 27, 1930
Terrific Thunder Storm, The Guardian (Bay Roberts), June. 27, 1930
Electrical Storm in Newfoundland, Newfoundland Weekly, July 5, 1930
Lumsden South Tragic Hailstorm, Town of Lumsden
In 1889 there was a mysterious light appeared off the coast of Lawn. It was bright enough that some believed it posed a risk to mariners.