Tornadoes · United States · Maine · 2011

EF0 tornado, Ft Fairfield, Maine, June 9, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Aroostook County on June 9, 2011, touching down at 4:10 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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. 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.

  7. 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 9, 2011
Touchdown
4:10 PM EDT (20:10 UTC)
Lifted
4:11 PM EDT (20:11 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Aroostook County
Touchdown point
46.798, -67.807
Lift-off point
46.797, -67.802
Record number
1106091410-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms with large hail and damaging winds occurred with a squall line crossing the region in advance of a cold front...with a weak tornado also reported. Heavy rains produced localized flash flooding around Caribou and Fort Fairfield in northeast Aroostook County. The squall line crossed the region from the mid afternoon into the early evening hours.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS CAR issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:02 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 16:09 UTC and running to 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
16:09 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchCAR
19:09 UTC19:25 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAR
19:34 UTC21:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningCAR
19:58 UTC20:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAR
20:02 UTC20:30 UTCTornado WarningCAR
20:10 UTC23:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningCAR

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

8.2 hours before the tornado, 17 km from the path. June 9, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Caribou, ME at 12:00Z on 2011-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 177 joules per kilogram, CIN -175, lifted condensation level 531 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Caribou, ME at 12:00Z on 2011-06-09The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 30 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
177 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-175 J/kg
Surface CAPE
5 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
531 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
89 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Caribou, ME (KCAR), 00:00Z

3.8 hours after it, 17 km from the path. June 10, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Caribou, ME at 00:00Z on 2011-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -88, lifted condensation level 726 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Caribou, ME at 00:00Z on 2011-06-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -98 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-88 J/kg
Surface CAPE
73 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
726 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-98 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Caribou radar (KCBW), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:10 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:30 UTCHAIL 12 Ne Fort FairfieldAroostook, ME
20:10 UTCTORNADO2 Ne Fort FairfieldAroostook, MENWS STORM SURVEY INDICATED AN EF0 TORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN WITH A MAXIMUM WIDTH OF 50 YARDS AND AN ESTIMATED PATH LENGTH OF ONE QUARTER OF A MILE. DAMAGE CONFINED TO TREES.
20:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 W Fort FairfieldAroostook, METREES DOWN ON ABOUT 6 INCHES ACROSS. GRAVEL AND DIRT ACROSS ROAD.
20:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 N Fort FairfieldAroostook, METREES DOWN ON ROUTE 1A BETWEEN FORT FAIRFIELD AND LIMESTONE
20:30 UTCHAIL 12 Ne Fort FairfieldAroostook, ME
20:38 UTCFLASH FLOODCaribouAroostook, MEWATER AND DEBRIS ON HIGHWAY 161.
20:44 UTCFLASH FLOODCaribouAroostook, MEWATER AND DEBRIS ON HIGH STREET IN CARIBOU.
20:45 UTCFLASH FLOODCaribouAroostook, MEDAMAGE AND DEBIRS ON GRIMES MILL ROAD.
20:50 UTCFLASH FLOOD2 E CaribouAroostook, MEPARTS OF ROUTE 161 CLOSED DUE TO WATER AND DEBRIS ON ROAD.
21:00 UTCFLASH FLOODCaribouAroostook, MEDEBRIS ON LIMESTONE STREET.
21:30 UTCFLASH FLOODCaribouAroostook, MEWATER OF 18 TO 24 INCHES DEEP RUNNING ACROSS SWEDEN STREET.
22:00 UTCFLASH FLOOD3 Nw Fort FairfieldAroostook, MESTRICKLAND ROAD WASHED OUT BY HEAVY RAIN.

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 9, 2011

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 94:48 PM EDTEF1Northwest Hills Planning Region, CT0.030
June 96:56 PM CDTEF0Sedgwick, KS0.465

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.