Maine tornados

[jeremy wilson]

I noticed a couple tornado warnings for northern Maine yesterday and I think thats the first time that I've seen warnings up that way. It got me to thinking and I know I've never seen tornado pics or reports in Maine. For that matter I've never seen anything for the Vermont/New Hampshire area either.

I've spent some time in Vermont and N. Hampshire and can't imagine a violent nader ripping over the mountains and evergreens, much less Maine. If anyone has any pics or links to pics and reports of tornados in Maine I think it would be really cool to see.

[Shane Adams]

There's an old film of a tornado in Maine from (I believe) 1978. If memory serves, it was shot by someone at the local NWSFO as it passed close by.

[Alex Goldstein]

I remember last year there were tor warnings on back to back days in the same county in Maine.

It seems to my untrained eye that there is sort of a hot zone for severe weather in upstate New York all the way north and east up into Maine and Massachusetts. Obviously not tornado alley, but occasionally you'll get a nice rotating storm up there. Of course, never in New Jersey. :mad:

[HAltschule]

There are several hot zones for severe weather and tornadoes. One of the most prevalent zones is far Eastern New York and Western Massachusetts. The main culpirt is the Hudson River Valley that runs from New York City/Atlantic Ocean up north through the lower Adirondacks. Many thunderstorms will move eastward and experience SW winds at the surfaces and then approach the Hudson Valley. The way it is juxstaposed allows for a more southerly or southeasterly wind MANY times. And this creates a much more enhanced low level shear. Many storm will become supercellular and pose a tornadic potential when they encounter the Hudson Vally. It has happened 10-15 times this summer already and I have seen some great thunderstorms. The other factor is that there's higher terrain of the Taconic Hills and the Berkshire Mountains. These cause rapid thunderstorm development too when the air is forced to rise rapidly.

Fortunately for me, I have seen a tornado this summer and have been able to position myself at this great overlook with views of downtown Albany, NY to watch incredible supercells roll through. There are very few places for good storm viewing around here because of the trees and terrain. But this place is great.

PS: About 8 years ago (?) we had the Mechanicville, NY Tornado (amongst other tornadoes). It was an F3 tornado and one of the largest outbreaks (if not the largest) in our history.

[jeremy wilson]

Speak of the devil! I guess we should of taken our chase vacations in Maine this year. Nearly the entire state is under a tornado watch. I didnt see a tornado report yet but cnn is reporting dozens of homes damaged from what they are calling a confirmed tornado in New Hampshire. Cant wait to see if there are any pics of the apparent tornado.

[Darrin Rasberry]

What's funny is that I was asked "what's the worst place to go chasing?" the other day, to which I answered, "if you're in the lower 48 states, probably Nevada or something."

Sorry, Nevada.

[Tim Vasquez]

At the Tonopah Test Range (basically the north side of the Nellis Range, Area 51, and all that) we used to see some awesome dust devils, complete with inner core and the works. Our weather station was hit several times, and that was quite a spectacle as there would be dozens of cubic yards of tumbleweed coming along with it. After our wind sensors got hit a couple of times, spiking the winds up to 40+ kt and playing havoc with wind forecasts, our station chief had to write up a policy about dust devil spikes and that they were to be ignored for warning verification.

Hopefully I am not derailing this thread too much.

Tim

[Bill Hark]

I vaguely remember seeing a photo of a Maine tornado but couldn't find it. Here is a link to a Maine waterspout image.

http://www.state.me.us/mema/prepare/prep_summer.shtml


Bill Hark

[Sean Mullen]

My brother lives up in Brunswick, Maine. In 2005, there were more tornadoes(2) within 3 miles of his house on Thanksgiving Day than there were in the entire state of Oklahoma during the month of May.
Many tornadoes probably go unreported, and perhaps unseen. Aroostook county in northern Maine has an area 20% greater than that of the state of Connecticut; its northwest territory has a population density of 1 person per 100 square miles.

Sean

[Rob Satkus]

In reference to the above mentioned NH tornado, NWS GYX issued an updated LSR indicating a confirmed tornado at Deerfield, with one fatality. No EF rating assigned as of this posting. Also of interest to some..there was a confirmed tornado in Rhode Island a couple of days ago as well (crossed into MA). So who needs the plains.

RS

[Rob Lightbown]

Well speaking from someone that does live way up here in northern Maine, I can give you some background on tornadoes that have occured up here in Aroostook County. Much like the Hudson Valley of eastern New York and western Massachusetts, there is an area that runs a north-south corridor east of Route 11 to the Maine-Canadian border that is our own "tornado alley". It seems that severe thunderstorms are intensified by the hills to our west over northwest Aroostook and encounter the Aroostook Valley where to the east are mountains in Canada, so the winds are "forced" to switch to the south and southeast which then poses a tornadic threat. I have personally seen a tornado and a few funnel clouds up here, however, chasing would be nearly impossible due to road options and visibility issues.

As for the Maine tornado picture, there is one and can be found in Significant Tornadoes, the supplement issue which listed tornadoes from 1991-1995. The tornado picture was taken in Caribou on July 1st, 1994. I don't remember what page and that picture cannot be found on the internet (I have looked!!).

One last item, the only tornado death in Maine happened in 1954 in Caribou as a tornado destroyed a trailer and killed a woman. Also, tornadoes up here have tended to be fairly "weak" with the strongest rated F2s on the "old" Fujita scale.

If you have any questions re: our tornadoes up here feel free to ask!!

Rob Lightbown
http://www.crownweather.com

[Rob Lightbown]

The following link has some really good aerial shots of the tornado damage from Thursday in New Hampshire. The NWS has rated the tornado a EF-2.

http://www.lakesregionaerials.com/photostore/Tornado_2008_g123.html

[Dave Kaplow]

One last item, the only tornado death in Maine happened in 1954 in Caribou as a tornado destroyed a trailer and killed a woman. Also, tornadoes up here have tended to be fairly "weak" with the strongest rated F2s on the "old" Fujita scale.

Grazulis' "New England Tornadoes" lists at least one other confirmed Maine tornado death. Supposedly it happened in 1890, when a church belfry was blown onto a house in Winthrop, killing a woman. Another entry mentions a possible tornado in 1892 that overturned a boat in Bangor, killing two men, but Grazulis thinks this was probably a downburst. Other than the 1954 event, these were the only fatalities I could find. It's still a remarkably low number.

[Dean Meece]

Regarding Maine Tornado activity - some might find this interesting.

Tornado History Project - Maine Tornados since 1950. (http://www.tornadohistoryproject.com/tornado.php?yr=%25&mo=%25&day=%25&st=Maine&fu=%25&co=Any&l=auto&submit=Map&ddat=on&dsta=on&dfuj=on&dfat=on&dinj=on&dcou=on&format=basic&p=1&s=1)

-Dean

[Dean Meece]

Here is the reported path (http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&ll=43.550539,-71.128235&spn=0.881834,1.691895&t=h&z=9&msid=115786659714775629812.000452fd7e86c39ef430e) of the of the 7/24/08 NH EF1/2 Tornado.

-Dean

[jeremy wilson]

Wow. Great aerials of the nh nader damage. I wonder how shocked the folks were to have a twister of that magnitude come through there. Looks like a narrow but intense and lengthy damage path. If you could have been in the right place I bet you could've gotten some nice shots.

[Miriam Lawrence]

Slightly OT, perhaps, but seems relevant to the thread... the NWS has confirmed that we had an EF-1 tornado here in Vermont a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/btv/events/18July2008/

Nothing like ya'll get in the Plains, but we've had some pretty dramatic (and beautiful) storms here this spring and summer.

On the subject of New England tornadoes, my husband was witness to the F-4 tornado that hit New Haven and Hamden, CT back in 1990. He didn't even know what was happening -- I'm the weather weenie, so the fact that the sky was green meant nothing to him :rolleyes: -- but he figured out it was something out of the ordinary when the skylights got sucked out of his apartment. When it was over, all of the storefronts directly across the street from his building had been destroyed.

[Dave Kaplow]

Slightly OT, perhaps, but seems relevant to the thread... the NWS has confirmed that we had an EF-1 tornado here in Vermont a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/btv/events/18July2008/

Nothing like ya'll get in the Plains, but we've had some pretty dramatic (and beautiful) storms here this spring and summer.

On the subject of New England tornadoes, my husband was witness to the F-4 tornado that hit New Haven and Hamden, CT back in 1990. He didn't even know what was happening -- I'm the weather weenie, so the fact that the sky was green meant nothing to him :rolleyes: -- but he figured out it was something out of the ordinary when the skylights got sucked out of his apartment. When it was over, all of the storefronts directly across the street from his building had been destroyed.

Thanks for posting that VT write up, I spend a lot of time in VT but was unaware there had been a tornado recently. The New Haven F4, which was actually in '89, was what got me interested in chasing. I noticed the quarter to golfball size hail, and I might well have seen the tornado if I had made the effort to look out the window, but for very stupid reasons I just didn't. Afterward I was so upset that I missed it that I decided then and there that seeing a tornado was now a major goal of my life. Since then I've seen my share of tornadoes, mostly on the Plains, but if another storm like the '89 event should hit CT, I'll definitely be ready. It's interesting that while we don't get all that many tornadoes in CT, when we do get them they're often very powerful. The '89 storm, and the '79 F3 near Hartford are perfect examples.