EF1 tornado, Stoughton to South Weymouth Nas, 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

9:52 AM EDT (13:52 UTC)

Lifted

9:55 AM EDT (13:55 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Norfolk County

Touchdown point

42.178, -70.951

Lift-off point

42.181, -70.953

Record number

2308180752-01

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.

A tornado briefly touched down in Stoughton on Eighth Street and|Corbett Street. Sporadic damage along a short path included fallen|trees, one of which fell onto a shed. Part of a fence was blown|in.

A tornado touched down in Weymouth near the intersection of|Pleasant and Torrey Streets. Numerous trees were uprooted and |snapped. A home at the intersection of Burton Terrace and Torrey|Street had about twenty singles torn from its roof. On Park|Avenue, a three-inch diameter branch from a treetrop was blown |about 120 yards and driven into the ground to a depth of 2 feet.|An eyewitness who received a Wireless Emergency Alert could see|swirling debris out a window as she took shelter in her cellar. |The tornado lifted near a water tower at the end of Lockewoods |Drive.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS BOX issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:45 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:06 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.

Norwood Memorial (OWD), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Boston radar (KBOX), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:54 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.