Franklin County, ME Tornado Risk & Storm Shelter Cost
Franklin County's tornado history, by the numbers
Since 1958, NOAA has logged 4 tornado tracks crossing Franklin County - one about every 18.9 years, which lands it in our Minimal band. Nationally, Franklin County ranks at the 14th percentile for tornado frequency. Among 16 Maine counties in this dataset, Franklin County ranks 11 for how often a tornado touches down.
Franklin County's EF4-5 history
Franklin County's record has no EF4-5 tornado - its 4 tracks split 4 weak and 0 significant. That does not rule one out in the future, only that none has been recorded since 1950.
What a storm shelter costs near Franklin County
For a Franklin County homeowner, budget $2,890-$13,280 for a shelter or safe room ($7,645 typical) - this pass found no Maine-specific rebate on top of FEMA's underlying 75% national cost-share program.
The outage nobody plans for
A direct hit is not required for Franklin County to lose power - outbreak-wide outages across Maine regularly reach homes and businesses well outside the actual tracks. A battery bank covers that gap without a generator's fuel and venting needs.
Read this before you rely on it
This is a county-level figure, not a per-address probability. Franklin County covers about 1,697 square miles, so a single touch here counts the same as a single touch in a county a fraction of that size. Pre-radar-era records (before the 1990s) are also documented by NOAA as undercounting weaker tornadoes in sparsely-instrumented areas. Franklin County has about 30,902 residents.