Tornadoes · United States · Maine · 2011
EF0 tornado, Frenchville Lower, Maine, June 8, 2011
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Aroostook County on June 8, 2011, touching down at 7:10 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 mph
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- June 8, 2011
- Touchdown
- 7:10 PM EDT (23:10 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:11 PM EDT (23:11 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.1 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Aroostook County
- Touchdown point
- 46.648, -68.283
- Lift-off point
- 46.647, -68.282
- Record number
- 1106081710-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Severe thunderstorms developed across Aroostook County along a nearly stationary frontal boundary. The storms developed during the late afternoon and continued into the evening. The storms primarily produced damaging winds...though two weak tornadoes also occurred. Heavy rain from training thunderstorms produced localized flash flooding in the Fort Kent area.
An EF0 tornado briefly touched down damaging trees.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
26 minutes of warning. NWS CAR issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:44 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:12 UTC | 22:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAR |
| 22:02 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | CAR |
| 22:05 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | CAR |
| 22:28 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAR |
| 22:31 UTC | 23:14 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAR |
| 22:34 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAR |
| 22:35 UTC | 00:34 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | CAR |
| 22:44 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | CAR |
| 23:12 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAR |
| 23:17 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAR |
| 23:29 UTC | 02:57 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | CAR |
| 23:32 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | CAR |
| 00:31 UTC | 00:57 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAR |
Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.
The forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 UTC.
SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.
The air that afternoon
The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.
Caribou, ME (KCAR), 12:00Z
11.2 hours before the tornado, 33 km from the path. June 8, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -153 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 875 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 44 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 6 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 25 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 104 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
The radar
The Caribou radar (KCBW), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:08 UTC.
Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track
Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:22 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ssw Stockholm | Aroostook, ME | NWS SURVEY CONFIRMS EF-0 TORNADO WITH A 10 MILE INTERMITTENT PATH. |
| 22:31 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Stockholm | Aroostook, ME | TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN IN STOCKHOLM. |
| 22:32 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nw Woodland | Aroostook, ME | NUMEROUS TREES UPROOTED |
| 22:36 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Nw Woodland | Aroostook, ME | SEVERAL LARGE TREES UPROOTED |
| 22:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 Nne Caribou | Aroostook, ME | NUMEOROUS TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN ON ALBAIR ROAD. |
| 22:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Ashland | Aroostook, ME | NUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ACROSS ASHLAND. |
| 22:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Loring | Aroostook, ME | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN |
| 23:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 E New Sweden | Aroostook, ME | GARAGE MOVED IN TO ROAD ON PLANTE ROAD. |
| 23:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 Nne Caribou | Aroostook, ME | BARN DESTROYED ON BRISSETTE ROAD. |
| 23:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Ashland | Aroostook, ME | NUMEROUS TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN IN ASHLAND. |
| 23:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Wsw Mapleton | Aroostook, ME | TREES DOWN ON ROUTE 163. |
| 23:15 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Ene Ashland | Aroostook, ME | NWS SURVEY CONFIRMS BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO |
| 23:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Ashland | Aroostook, ME | NUMEROUS TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN IN ASHLAND. |
| 23:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Caribou | Aroostook, ME | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN IN CARIBOU. |
| 23:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ne Caribou | Aroostook, ME | TREES DOWN ON BOWLS ROAD. |
| 23:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 Ne Caribou | Aroostook, ME | NUMEROUS TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN ON MADAWASKA ROAD. |
| 23:49 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 8 Wsw Presque Isle | Aroostook, ME | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN. |
| 23:49 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Mapleton | Aroostook, ME | TREES DOWN IN MAPLETON. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in MaineEvery tornado in Maine since 1950Warnings in force in Maine nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 8, 2011
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
What this means
Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.