EF1 tornado, Frederica, Delaware, March 16, 2026

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. 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.

7. 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.

Rating, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

March 16, 2026

Touchdown

10:48 PM EDT (02:48 UTC)

Lifted

10:49 PM EDT (02:49 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.1 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Kent County

Touchdown point

38.984, -75.494

Lift-off point

38.983, -75.481

Highest wind the damage implies

100 mph

Surveyed by

NWS PHI

Survey last edited

March 18, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PHI, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Pagoda was overturned. This was the furthest west point of a path of damage
• Center pivot irrigation system overturned.
• Multiple trees uprooted and trees snapped at the trunk.
• Multiple trees uprooted with one tree into a shed which destroyed the shed.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

With a strong wind field aloft already in place, showers and thunderstorms developed and formed into a line that moved through Delaware. This convective line brought damaging wind gusts and a tornado to Delaware.

An EF-1 tornado occurred south of Frederica. Tree damage started at the intersection of Carpenter Bridge Road and Fork Landing Road, where multiple trees were uprooted and snapped. Tree damage continued eastward along Fork Landing Road, including multiple trees snapped. One snapped tree fell into a shed, destroying the shed. Tree damage was observed along Fork Landing Road until just before Browns Branch.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

25 minutes of warning. NWS PHI issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:23 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 00:18 UTC and running to 03:52 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:43 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The Dover AFB radar (KDOX), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:47 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in DelawareEvery tornado in Delaware since 1950Warnings in force in Delaware nowThe forecast where you are

10 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.