The calendar says it is August and I still have no clue as to where July went. But I know there are a lot of people in the tornado-hit towns to the northeast of Manchester who must be glad that July has departed.

July felt different this year even before the once-in-a-lifetime (one hopes) tornado. Two beautiful summer weeks were preceded and followed by weather more suited for the tropics, with downpours and mugginess nearly every day.

Driving to work the other morning, I heard a radio weather forecaster say that there would be showers in the morning, followed by showers in the afternoon. And, he added, there was an all-day chance of thundershowers. Uh, isn't that like saying it's going to rain?

The tornado presented a lot of challenges for our news team. National Weather Service tornado warnings are not routine around here, and our UnionLeader.com site sent out a quick bulletin. Then events happened fast and furious.

With reporters, photographers and correspondents on the scene, plus some of our people who had property or camps in the tornado's path, we were able to provide our Web visitors with updates throughout the afternoon.

That included the news that everyone hoped not to hear but feared would be repeated more than once: Someone was dead in the powerful storm that literally destroyed homes as if they were toys. A grandmother, rocking her baby grandson in the comfort of her Deerfield lakeside home on a quiet summer day, died trying to protect him when darkness came at noon.

Many people said it and it was true: Given the ferocity of the tornado, it was a miracle, or maybe many miracles, that more people weren't hurt or killed.

As sad as many of the stories were, the good news was not only in the small number of casualties but in the fashion in which neighbors came out in the storm's aftermath to help neighbors. People just turned out to help; and they continued to do so right through this past weekend.

History will one day record July 2008, as the time a tornado struck New Hampshire. But for the people who have lived through it, I think they will remember it as much for the many acts of kindness that followed it as for the storm itself.

Write to Joe McQuaid at publisher@unionleader.com.