EF1 tornado, East Fryeburg to Otisfield, Maine, July 1, 2017

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

July 1, 2017

Touchdown

6:09 PM EDT (22:09 UTC)

Lifted

6:10 PM EDT (22:10 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Oxford County

Touchdown point

44.030, -70.800

Lift-off point

44.030, -70.793

Record number

1707011609-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GYX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 74 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A very strong shortwave and associated cold front were approaching from the west on the morning of July 1st. Ahead of the front, a very warm and moist air mass was in place over New England with values of precipitable water around 2 inches. Strong directional and speed shear contributed to numerous super cells that produced damaging winds and 5 confirmed tornadoes. In addition, very heavy rain associated with these cells produced flash flooding to many area roads with damage totaling in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A tornado touched down on the southwestern shore of Moose Pond in Denmark in Oxford County. Dozens of trees were snapped or uprooted in a path which crossed Mountain Road and extended into Moose Pond. Damaged trees fell onto at least one vehicle, multiple cabins, and at least one boat and nearby dock causing substantial structural damage.||People further north along the shore of Moose Pond were able to observe what was likely the tornado as it emerged from the side of the mountain and out onto Moose Pond. It is possible that the tornado could have continued farther across the pond and|into the town of Bridgton, but damage surveys were unable to confirm this. This storm circulation eventually went on to produce another tornado in Bridgton about twenty minutes later.||Considering the substantial number of uprooted and snapped trees within the core path of this tornado, winds were estimated to be as high as 95 mph, giving the tornado an EF1 rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

A small tornado touched down near the town of Otisfield, Oxford County, based on ground damage, eyewitness reports, and pictures. ||The tornado touched down near Jesse Mill Road with roughly a half dozen large pines trees uprooted. Video showed a rotating cloud base and possible funnel cloud observed west of Bolsters Mills Road just before this time. Damage also occurred on Bolsters Mills Road with large branches downed on power lines. As the storm moved east, additional damage was noted on Bell Hill Road where a large pine tree fell on a house and a number of other pine trees were uprooted, some of which blew down onto power lines. Additional damaged and downed trees were found near the intersection of Peaco Hill Road and Rayville Road, as well as downed power lines. Some eyewitnesses reported the ear-popping sensation oftentimes reported with tornadoes. Video also showed substantial rotation at cloud base to the east of where the tornado occurred. This tornado was spawned from the same storm that produced a tornado near Bridgton about 20 minutes earlier.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:39 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.

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 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 19:50 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 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.

Fryeberg (IZG), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Portland,ME radar (KGYX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:06 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in MaineEvery tornado in Maine since 1950Warnings in force in Maine nowThe forecast where you are

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.