Tornado, Kennebec
- When
- July 8, 5:00 PM EST to 5:03 PM EST
- Where
- Kennebec County, Monmouth to 5 mi of West Gardiner
- Rating
- F2
- Path length
- 1.5 mi
- Path width
- 200 yd
- Property damage
- $15,000
- Coordinates
- 44.280, -69.970
Tornado in Maine, July 8, 1996
Strong thunderstorms produced an F-2 tornado with winds estimated to be 130 mph that touched down near the west shore of Cobbosseecontee Lake. 5 miles long as it moved across the lake, hitting a point of land and a small island.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $15,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS GYX wrote it up.
Strong thunderstorms produced an F-2 tornado with winds estimated to be 130 mph that touched down near the west shore of Cobbosseecontee Lake. The tornado cut a path about 200 yards wide and about 1.5 miles long as it moved across the lake, hitting a point of land and a small island. Numerous tall pines 2 feet in diameter were snapped off by the tornado with damage to a vehicle, a cabin, and a summer home from falling trees. The tornado also overturned a boat and flipped a floating dock out of the water.
The radar
The Portland,ME radar (KGYX), 49 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:59 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Flash Flooding and Damaging Wind in New Jersey, July 8, 1996
- Lightning Strike in Oklahoma, July 8, 1996
- Damaging Wind in New Jersey, July 8, 1996
- Damaging Wind in Arizona, July 8, 1996
- Hail in Maine, July 8, 1996
- Damaging Wind in Kansas, July 8, 1996
- Flood in Mississippi, July 8, 1996
- Flood in Mississippi, July 8, 1996
- Lightning Strike in Texas, July 8, 1996
- Damaging Wind in Tennessee, July 8, 1996
- Lightning Strike in Maryland, July 8, 1996
- Tornado in Missouri, July 8, 1996
More
Every storm in Maine in 1996Every state in 1996This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Maine, 1996Warnings in Maine, July 1996
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5578007.