Tornado thrashes Eagle Lake

    EAGLE LAKE — An EF-1 tornado tore through Eagle Lake on May 24, leaving a trail of destruction roughly 3.2 miles long that averaged 100 yards wide and destroyed hundreds of trees, an outbuilding, a transport trailer and a boat. No injuries were reported.      “It’s that length versus width that indicated tornado rather than straight-line winds,” said meteorologist Hendricus Lulofs of the National Weather Service office in Caribou. “It snapped trees, uprooted trees, and the way the trees were laying down in different directions [also] indicated a tornado.”
    “We marry up a bunch of data to determine a tornado,” Lulofs added. “The survey team reviewed the radar data, the recorded wind flow and talked with eyewitnesses.”
    According to Lulofs, maximum wind speeds resulting from the tornado reached 110 miles per hour, and while tornadoes are not commonplace in Maine, three or four of tornadoes take place in southern and western parts of the state every year.
    The National Weather Service survey team determined that the tornado first touched down near the Pinette Brook Crossing around 2:15 p.m. on Sunday and stayed an intermittent southeast course for its duration, crossing Convent Road, Duprey Road and Route 11.
    The last official tornado in northern Maine occurred in Oakfield on July 24, 2001.