EF0 tornado, Center Ossipee, New Hampshire, August 22, 2020

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   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

EF0

Date

August 22, 2020

Touchdown

2:05 PM EDT (18:05 UTC)

Lifted

2:10 PM EDT (18:10 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.7 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$5,000

County

Carroll County

Touchdown point

43.750, -71.150

Lift-off point

43.738, -71.128

Record number

2008221205-01

44 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GYX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.

• oak snapped and white pine
• Across the street from primary damage. 1 beech and oak.
• Looking above primary damage area. Total of 14 Damaged trees, 2 vehicles and 4 cabins.
• maple section of tree, weak

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

A weak tornado briefly touched down and caused minor damage in Central Ossipee. A weak stationary boundary extended through central New England which was a focus area of increased shear and low level helicity. One strong discrete supercell formed south of the Central Ossipee with a confirmed waterspout and microburst. A weak mini-supercell formed shortly after to then north with enough low level shear to cause a brief and weak EF0 tornado.

A weak tornado briefly touched down and caused minor damage in Central Ossipee. Minor tree damage occurred on Main St. with a few snapped and uprooted softwood trees. There was also some minor oak tree damage with the tops snapped off. One structure had some minor roof damage due to shingles being blown off. The tornado briefly lifted before additional tree damage occurred along Beech River Court with additional snapped trees and debris from small branches. Sporadic damage was reported on the west side of Rt. 16 before crossing Rt. 16 and causing minor tree damage on the east side of Rt. 16. One more commercial building had minor shingle damage to its roof before the tornado lifted. The mix of snapped soft & hardwood trees along with the shingle damage support a maximum wind speed of 70 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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. The outlook in force was issued at 16:44 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.

The Portland,ME radar (KGYX), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:08 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 2020 tornado in New HampshireEvery tornado in New Hampshire since 1950Warnings in force in New Hampshire nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.