EF0 tornado, Hampton, Pennsylvania, August 18, 2021

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 18, 2021

Touchdown

3:16 PM EDT (19:16 UTC)

Lifted

3:18 PM EDT (19:18 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$6,000

County

Adams County

Touchdown point

39.939, -77.062

Lift-off point

39.948, -77.058

Record number

2108181316-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CTP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

• One dead tree was surveyed laying toward the NNE. NWS interviewed someone nearby who reported the tree fell on Wed afternoon. A spotter reported that additional trees had fallen in the wooded area across from Reading Twp Municipal Building.
• Some corn crop was downed, pointing NW toward the tornado track.
• Large branches were ripped off healthy maple trees and carried about 10-20 feet. They landed in a convergent pattern toward the ENE and NE.
• A patch of corn crop was downed by the tornado. The downed corn points NW.

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

An EF-0 tornado touched down west of East Berlin during the afternoon of August 18, 2021. The tornado had estimated peak winds near 65 mph, a path length of around 0.6 miles, and a maximum path width of 75 yards.

An EF-0 tornado touched down west of East Berlin during the afternoon of August 18, 2021. The tornado had estimated peak winds near 65 mph, a path length of around 0.6 miles, and a maximum path width of 75 yards. The tornado began near the Reading Township Municipal Building on Church Street, where a few trees were downed and several large branches were snapped. Debris was lying in a convergent pattern along the northeastward track. The tornado continued northeastward along or just west of Church Road. Some corn crop along Church Road was damaged, lying northwestward toward the tornado track.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS CTP issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:10 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:50 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:37 UTC and running to 00:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 17:08 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.

Thomasville/York (THV), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:13 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 2021 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.