Tornadoes · United States · Maine · 2012

EF0 tornado, Montsweag, Maine, July 24, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Sagadahoc County on July 24, 2012, touching down at 7:30 PM EDT and reaching 20 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
July 24, 2012
Touchdown
7:30 PM EDT (23:30 UTC)
Lifted
7:32 PM EDT (23:32 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Sagadahoc County
Touchdown point
43.989, -69.767
Lift-off point
43.988, -69.764
Record number
1207241730-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A small tornado touched down briefly in the town of Woolwich in Sagadahoc County. Several residents in the immediate area witnessed the tornado and a nearby resident videotaped the funnel.

A small tornado touched down briefly in the town of Woolwich. The tornado was observed touching down near Jakes Run about 7:30 pm and moved east to about Trott Road. Damage was very limited with only a couple branches snapped and trees uprooted. The tornado also lifted up and blew a trampoline through the air and blew some lawn furniture and children's toys in the yard. Maximum wind gusts were estimated at between 50 and 60 mph. The tornado was on the ground for about 0.2 miles and had a path width of about 20 yards.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:14 UTC17:39 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGYX

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Gray, ME (KGYX), 12:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 41 km from the path. July 24, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Gray, ME at 12:00Z on 2012-07-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 581 joules per kilogram, CIN -117, lifted condensation level 622 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, Gray, ME at 12:00Z on 2012-07-24The 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 172 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.193958Sfc1 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
581 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-117 J/kg
Surface CAPE
78 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
622 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
172 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
199 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Gray, ME (KGYX), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 41 km from the path. July 25, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Gray, ME at 00:00Z on 2012-07-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 204 joules per kilogram, CIN -84, lifted condensation level 1225 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, Gray, ME at 00:00Z on 2012-07-25The 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 -33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.193958Sfc1 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
204 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-84 J/kg
Surface CAPE
819 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1225 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Wiscasset (IWI), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:46 UTC73.469.8180° 3 kt1000.7VCTS
21:53 UTC7469190° 3 kt1000.7VCTS
22:14 UTC75.2680° 0 kt1000.7TS
22:24 UTC75.269.8170° 3 kt1000.7
22:53 UTC73690° 0 kt1001
23:35 UTC71.669.80° 0 kt1001.7+RA BR
23:38 UTC71.669.80° 0 kt1001.7VCTS +RA BR
23:53 UTC696440° 5 kt1002VCTS -RA
00:14 UTC6864.40° 0 kt1001.7
00:53 UTC66630° 0 kt1002.4

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Portland,ME radar (KGYX), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:29 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
23:35 UTCTORNADO5 Nne WoolwichSagadahoc, MEEF-0 TOUCHED DOWN BRIEFLY AND BLEW DOWN SEVERAL TREES. SEVERAL PEOPLE WITNESSED THE TORNADO ON THE GROUND.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in MaineEvery tornado in Maine since 1950Warnings in force in Maine nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 24, 2012

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 244:08 PM EDTEF0Plymouth, MA0.015$3,000
July 241:45 PM PDTEF0Lincoln, NV0.750
July 243:57 PM MDTEF0Santa Fe, NM0.030

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.