EF1 tornado, Berne to West Hamburg, Pennsylvania, August 18, 2021

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, 2021

Touchdown

9:15 PM EDT (01:15 UTC)

Lifted

9:18 PM EDT (01:18 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.7 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Berks County

Touchdown point

40.525, -76.001

Lift-off point

40.540, -75.996

Record number

2108181915-01

The remnants of Tropical Storm Fred affected the mid-Atlantic region on the night of August 18 into the predawn hours of August 19. In addition to heavy rain and areas of flooding, Fred's remnants brought a threat for severe weather. As the center of the system moved from central Pennsylvania into the Finger Lakes region of New York, it became increasingly frontal in nature. A warm sector air mass overspread the eastern mid-Atlantic. Instability was limited due to the overnight timing. However, strong shear and forcing combined with tropical moisture allowed for widespread convection to occur as Fred's remnants moved through. Several instances of damaging wind and a couple of tornadoes occurred in the region during the overnight hours, before the system departed on the morning of the 19th.

The tornado touched down along Fisher Dam Road about 800 feet north |of the intersection with Berne Road. Numerous hardwood tree trunks |were snapped on the western side of the road with a convergent debris|pattern. A corn field on the east side of the road in the same |location was damaged with stalks of corn felled in a convergent |pattern. Further north on Fisher Dam Road, hardwood tree damage was |noted, but it was more sporadic.||Additional damage was noted about a half-mile north of the |intersection of Berne Road and Hill Drive, including numerous trees |snapped on the east side of Berne Road. A little farther north, about|450 feet south of the intersection with Ash Road, a utility pole was|snapped, and hardwood trees were snapped both on the western side |and the eastern side of the road with convergent debris patterns |noted.||There was damage on Ash Road, including a roof that was removed from|a porch and the roof damage extended into the main roof of the |house. The roof was deposited to the east, while at the same time, a |flagpole from the roof supports was tossed to the north. There was |also numerous snapped hardwood trees in this area. Further east on |Ash Road, another house had a large, healthy tree snapped. Tree |damage was also noted on properties on the north side of Ash Road.||Further north of Ash Road, some damage occurred at the Village of |Pleasant Hills Mobile Home community, including hardwood trees |snapped and some cars were damaged by the fallen trees. Some skirting|along the base of a mobile home was mostly torn off. The damage |appeared to become more sporadic and then ended.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 15:38 UTC and running to 03:00 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 00:51 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.

Reading/Spaatz Field (RDG), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 150 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:14 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.