The latest news about Maine lakes and ponds.

Water Spout, Funnel Cloud Seen in Bridgton

July 29, 2008 - BRIDGTON -- The National Weather Service in Gray said Friday that a person reported seeing a water spout cross Woods Pond in Bridgton during stormy weather Thursday.

Bridgton police also reported that trees on both sides of the pond were blown down and that some camps on the lake were damaged.

Woods Pond is located two miles southwest of downtown Bridgton. The agency reported the spout was spotted at 1:30 p.m. A funnel cloud was also seen in Bridgton about the same time.

A water spout is a tornado that touches down over water rather than land. A funnel cloud does not touch land, and does not meet the definition of a tornado.

The agency sent a staff person to Bridgton on Friday to find out what happened. A report was not available as of press time.

The storm system that swept New England on Thursday had serious consequences in New Hampshire. The weather service confirmed Friday that a tornado struck Deerfield, N.H., where a grandmother died when her house collapsed on her Thursday.

Officials said her husband was spun around inside the lakefront home and ejected into the yard, leaving the woman and the couple's 3-month-old grandson trapped between the building's two collapsed stories.

She died, but the infant's cries led firefighters to him in the rubble. The baby was hospitalized, but no information is being released at the family's request.

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch declared a state of emergency in five counties after the tornado and severe storms swept through the central part of the state.

There were strong thunderstorms and heavy rainfall in the western part of Maine and in parts of York County on Thursday.

Trees were blown down in Norway, Greenwood, Woodstock, Peru, Cornish, Jay and Wilton, according to the weather service. In addition, 143 large tree limbs fell on Woods Bridge Road in York.

The damage was much heavier in New Hampshire because of different factors in location and timing of the storm. Maine was protected from the brunt of a cold front moving eastward because of the time of day that it entered the state, said Art Lester, a weather service forecaster.

Thunderstorms need heat, he said, and the cold front entered most of the state near dusk when the day was cooling off.

In addition, there were easterly winds Thursday, bringing cooler air to Maine off the ocean.

"Ocean air does kill a thunderstorm," Lester said. "In Maine, we got it pretty easy on this."

He said the weather service wants to find out whether there was a tornado in Bridgton in order to improve its ability to forecast tornados. In addition to interviewing witnesses, a weather service employee will examine fallen trees.

If the trees have fallen in a straight line, he said, the area was hit by strong burst of wind generated by a thunderstorm.

If the trees lie in a rotated pattern, he said, then one can assume that a tornado caused the damage.

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By TOM BELL, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, July 26, 2008


Lakes: Woods Pond
Regions: Sebago


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