If a tornado blows through the Maine woods but no one’s there to see it, did it really happen?

6 years ago

A hard-hitting thunderstorm blew through the woods and lakes north of Moosehead Lake yesterday, churning the air at speeds that reached nearly 70 mph and indicating to the National Weather Service that Maine may have seen its first tornado of the year.

But the weather service can’t confirm it because its weather equipment wasn’t close enough to the event, Caribou-based meteorologist Rich Norton said. The winds passed over such a remote area that few, if anyone at at all, likely witnessed it.

“The problem is, there isn’t anyone out in that area to contact,” Norton said.

The weather service doesn’t have an outpost in that immediate area, but the closest radar picked up high velocity winds moving in tight circles, which would indicate the shape of a tornado.

To read the rest of “If a tornado blows through the Maine woods but no one’s there to see it, did it really happen?,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Callie Ferguson, please follow this link to the BDN online.