Tornadoes · United States · Maine · 2019
EF1 tornado, Topsfield, Maine, August 12, 2019
This EF1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Washington County on August 12, 2019, touching down at 5:43 PM EDT and reaching 200 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- August 12, 2019
- Touchdown
- 5:43 PM EDT (21:43 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:44 PM EDT (21:44 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.3 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Washington County
- Touchdown point
- 45.417, -67.955
- Lift-off point
- 45.416, -67.951
- Record number
- 1908121543-01
The damage survey
25 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CAR, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 88 mph.
- Two trees uprooted towards SSW. Shallow root system, rocky soft soil. 19” diameter
- Multiple trees uprooted. Rocky soft soil. Largest 11” diameter
- large trunk branch 20 feet up. 20” in diameter
- trees uprooted/leaning in wet ground
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A pre-frontal trof crossed the region during the afternoon of the 12th within a high shear environment. Showers and thunderstorms developed during the afternoon with the trof. One of the thunderstorms produced a brief tornado touchdown in northern Washington county. The touchdown occurred in a wooded area near Route 6. The EF-1 tornado intermittently touched down along a quarter mile path with winds estimated at up to 90 mph. An estimated 120 trees were snapped or toppled along the path.
A mini-supercell thunderstorm produced a brief tornado in a wooded area of Kossuth Township between Baskahegan Stream and Route 6. The tornado briefly touched down twice along the short path along Iron Bridge Road. Wind speeds with the EF-1 tornado were estimated at up to 90 mph. Approximately 120 trees were uprooted or snapped along the path (DI 28, DOD4). The average path width was around 150 yards.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Millinocket Municipal (MLT), 63 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Caribou radar (KCBW), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:40 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.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in MaineEvery tornado in Maine since 1950Warnings in force in Maine nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 12, 2019
4 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.