EF2 tornado, Wismer to Hightstown, Pennsylvania, July 29, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

July 29, 2021

Touchdown

4:59 PM CDT (21:59 UTC)

Lifted

5:14 PM CDT (22:14 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

6.3 miles (10.2 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Bucks and Mercer counties

Touchdown point

40.345, -74.948

Lift-off point

40.297, -74.846

Record number

2107291559-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PHI, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 mph.

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

A strong shortwave trough moved east-southeastward out of the Great Lakes region on July 29. An associated, strengthening surface low also tracked out of the Great Lakes and into upstate New York. A warm front associated with this low moved through most of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania during the late morning and early afternoon hours. This front, combined with the remains of widespread convection to the west from the previous overnight and morning hours, brought significant cloud cover to the eastern mid-Atlantic for much of the day on the 29th. This was mainly in the form of mid and high level cloud cover, however, and temperatures still warmed to near seasonal levels behind the warm front, allowing moderate to strong instability to build. Meanwhile, the robust surface and upper level disturbances approaching the region brought both strong forcing and unseasonably strong wind shear. By mid-afternoon, an unusually favorable convective environment existed over eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.||The result of this environment was a rare tornado outbreak across the area. Initially, during the mid-afternoon hours, mixed convective modes over east-central Pennsylvania produced a couple instances of damaging wind and brief tornadoes as storms attempted to overcome cloud cover and some light stratiform rain in the area. With time, as storms moved into better instability and a less contaminated environment over far eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they took on more supercellular structures. Multiple cyclic supercells would go on to produce several tornadoes, three of them strong (EF2+) over eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Convection persisted past the sunset hour with little to no loss in intensity due to the strong forcing. The only thing that put an end to the outbreak was the coastline, as storms moved offshore towards 9 to 10PM local time. Even offshore, one supercell continued to exhibit strong rotation and likely produced a strong waterspout for tens of miles over the Atlantic.||Fortunately, and miraculously, no serious injuries or loss of life occurred as a result of this outbreak. With the passage of a cold front late on the evening of the 29th, cooler, drier, and much less active weather would grace the region for several days as clean-up efforts began.

A strong shortwave trough moved east-southeastward out of the Great Lakes region on July 29. An associated, strengthening surface low also tracked out of the Great Lakes and into upstate New York. A warm front associated with this low moved through most of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania during the late morning and early afternoon hours. This front, combined with the remains of widespread convection to the west from the previous overnight and morning hours, brought significant cloud cover to the eastern mid-Atlantic for much of the day on the 29th. This was mainly in the form of mid and high level cloud cover, however, and temperatures still warmed to near seasonal levels behind the warm front, allowing moderate to strong instability to build. Meanwhile, the robust surface and upper level disturbances approaching the region brought both strong forcing and unseasonably strong wind shear. By mid-afternoon, an unusually favorable convective environment existed over eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.||The result of this environment was a rare tornado outbreak across the area. Initially, during the mid-afternoon hours, mixed convective modes over east-central Pennsylvania produced a couple instances of damaging wind and brief tornadoes as storms attempted to overcome cloud cover and some light stratiform rain in the area. With time, as storms moved into better instability and a less contaminated environment over far eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they took on more supercellular structures. Multiple cyclic supercells would go on to produce several tornadoes, three of them strong (EF2+) over eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Convection persisted past the sunset hour with little to no loss in intensity due to the strong forcing. The only thing that put an end to the outbreak was the coastline, as storms moved offshore towards 9 to 10PM local time. Even offshore, one supercell continued to exhibit strong rotation and likely produced a strong waterspout for tens of miles over the Atlantic.||Fortunately, and miraculously, no serious injuries or loss of life occurred as a result of this outbreak. With the passage of a cold front late on the evening of the 29th, cooler, drier, and much less active weather would grace the region for several days as clean-up efforts began.

Tree damage began in the area of Bradshaw Rd in Plumstead Twp in |Bucks County, where a few sizable limbs were downed and a couple |of larger but weakened trees were snapped. The tornado then |entered a cornfield near the intersection of Ferry Rd and Point |Pleasant Pike. Some degree of convergence was noted in a narrow |path of downed corn, though it was not overly strong. In addition,|some trees adjacent to and southeast of the cornfield were also |damaged. The damage became more substantial with a clearer |rotation signature observed in the area of Ridgeview Dr, where a |number of trees were snapped, favoring higher elevation areas |along a ridge line. The snapping and shearing of trees in that |area and the nature of the debris field strongly indicated |tornadic damage, with the magnitude of damage meriting an EF1 |rating. The tornado continued southeastward through Carversville |Rd and to the area of Long Ln in Buckingham Twp. Several |residences along and near Long Ln sustained tree damage. The |tornado impacted Maximuck's Farm Market on Long Ln, where |greenhouses sustained roof damage and some uplift of their frames.|Some convergence was also noted in crop fields on the property. |Just southeast of the greenhouses, a barn on the property was |heavily damaged with a partial collapse of its walls. However, |just beyond the barn, a large stretch of cornfields and a tree |line beyond the cornfields were left untouched, indicating the |tornado lifted near the damaged barn.

The supercell storm which produced a tornado in Plumstead Twp in Bucks County|cycled and produced another tornado beginning in New Hope in |Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Tree damage began near River Rd just |west of the Delaware River, with a portion of River Rd closed and |impassable due to downed trees. The tornado then began to cross the Delaware River enroute to Mercer County, New Jersey.

The tornado which began in New Hope, Pennsylvania crossed the Delaware |River and entered Mercer County, New Jersey, in the area of |Washington Crossing. Multiple reports of residential tree damage |were received from Washington Crossing, and the survey team |observed tree damage along River Rd on the New Jersey side of the |Delaware River. From there the tornado continued southeast and |crossed Pleasant Valley Rd. The first indications of EF2 damage |came on that road, with numerous large hardwood and softwood trees|snapped, sheared, and/or uprooted. The tornado continued |southeastward and crossed through Baldpate Mountain. Continued |heavy tree damage was observed in this area. An access road to the|top of the mountain was barely passable when the survey team |reached it in late afternoon, after many hours of tree clearing |work by local parks officials and private companies. Hundreds of |trees were snapped or damaged on this mountain. Damage continued |down the mountain through Fiddlers Creek Rd and Church Rd. The |tornado path then crossed Washington Crossing State Park. Further |damage was observed just southeast along Bear Tavern Rd. In fact, |some of the largest downed trees were observed in this area. |However, by this point damage became increasingly unidirectional |as the storm's rear flank downdraft likely wrapped around the |tornadic circulation. Sufficient evidence of tornadic winds still |existed in the Bear Tavern Rd area, but it is estimated the |tornado lifted soon after, shortly before entering much more |densely populated areas near the Trenton Mercer Airport.

The Windsor-Robbinsville Township tornado began on Route 130 just|south of the town of Windsor near the Assunpink Creek. A few |hardwood trees were uprooted along the highway near the Chestnut |Montessori. The building lost a portion of its roofing material |and several other hardwood trees were uprooted or snapped just |behind the property into a small wooded area. The tornado then |continued in a somewhat transient and weak manner through a series|of fields and tree lines. A few large tree branches were snapped |off near a farm home on Windsor Road and a hardwood tree in a tree|line was uprooted across the street. The sporadic tree damage |continued along Perrineville Road where a large section of a tree |was snapped off at another residence. The tornado then produced an|area of intense convergent tree damage near the intersection of |Perrineville Road and Voelbel Road where numerous trees were |snapped or uprooted. The tornado ended just downstream from this |intersection at a residence on Perrineville Road where a final |tree was uprooted. Despite its short path length, the tornado was on the ground for nearly 10 minutes, and radar data corroborates its motion as being much slower than other tornadoes on this day.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS PHI issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:32 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:25 UTC and running to 00:52 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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.

Trenton/Mercer Co. (TTN), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:56 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

36 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.