EF1 tornado, Adamsdale to West Mansfield, Massachusetts, August 18, 2023

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

EF1

Date

August 18, 2023

Touchdown

9:07 AM EDT (13:07 UTC)

Lifted

9:22 AM EDT (13:22 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

7.6 miles (12.2 km)

Path width

80 yards (73 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Bristol County

Touchdown point

41.942, -71.381

Lift-off point

41.992, -71.252

Record number

2308180707-01

A high amplitude, negatively tilted trough moving across the Great Lakes and into New England along with cold and warm front provided strong forcing which resulted in flooding, wind damage, and 5 tornadoes. In the warm sector dewpoints surged into the mid 70s with PWATs near 2 inches which led to torrential downpours. Tornadoes occurred in Scotland, Ct, Scituate, RI, North Attleboro, MA, Stoughton, MA, and Weymouth, MA. The tornadoes ranged in intensity from EF-0 to EF-2.

The storm that produced the Rhode Island tornado produced a second|tornado as it crossed into Massachusetts, just over the Cumberland|line in North Attleborough. ||Many trees were snapped or uprooted on Mendon Road near the|intersection of Monticello Drive. An eyewitness saw swirling|debris before taking shelter in her home. From there, damage was|more sporadic. A home on Mary Ann Way had its third floor window|blown in. Additionally, there were a number of downed or snapped|trees on Lisa Drive. The tornado then lifted briefly before|touching back down in Mansfield along Gilbert Street, where it|sheared several large trees near their tops, one of which fell on|a car. An air conditioning unit, estimated to have weighed 1000|pounds, was knocked over on the roof of a one-story commercial|building.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS BOX issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:35 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:15 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:45 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 radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Pawtucket (Awos) (SFZ), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Boston radar (KBOX), 15 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:10 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 2023 tornado in MassachusettsEvery tornado in Massachusetts since 1950Warnings in force in Massachusetts nowThe forecast where you are

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.