On a windy day, March acts like a lion

By James Vaznis, Globe Staff

Fierce winds brought down tree limbs and power lines across New England Friday, leaving thousands without power.

A fallen tree in the western Massachusetts town of Southwick blocked Route 202 for two hours in the morning, while half the town lost power. Electric companies tackled scattered outages throughout the day, mostly in the Worcester area, but by late in the evening most people had their power restored.

In Boston, the National Weather Service clocked the wind at 36 mph with gusts of 46 mph, while weather spotters called in wind gusts of 58 mph in Cambridge and more than 60 mph in Milton, Stow, and Worcester.

Elsewhere in New England, highlights included a tree falling on a house in Tolland, Conn., and trees falling on power lines in the New Hampshire towns of Bedford and Goffstown, cutting off power to more than 2,000 customers.

William Babcock, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said such havoc is characteristic of March in New England, as the cold of winter and the tropical warmth of spring and summer collide.

"Remember the old saying: March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb," Babcock said. "We've had worse, but it's not the kind of wind we get every day. ... That's why people who stay here are so blase about it."

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