Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 2021
EF0 tornado, Nanty Glo, Pennsylvania, July 29, 2021
This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Cambria County on July 29, 2021, touching down at 6:10 PM EDT and reaching 15 yards wide. It killed nobody.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.
The record
- Rating
- EF0
- Date
- July 29, 2021
- Touchdown
- 6:10 PM EDT (22:10 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:11 PM EDT (22:11 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.1 km)
- Path width
- 15 yards (14 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Cambria County
- Touchdown point
- 40.480, -78.838
- Lift-off point
- 40.480, -78.837
- Record number
- 2107291610-01
The damage survey
2 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 70 mph.
- Portable toilet and small set of bleachers displaced.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
An EF-0 tornado touched down near Nanty Glo during the early evening of July 29, 2021. The tornado had maximum winds near 70 mph, a path length of 350 feet and a maximum path width of 15 yards.
An EF-0 tornado touched down near Nanty Glo during the early evening of July 29, 2021. The tornado had maximum winds near 70 mph, a path length of 350 feet and a maximum path width of 15 yards. Touch down occurred on the western side of the Blacklick Valley High School football field and the tornado moved southeastward across the field before lifting on the eastern side of the football field. The tornado displaced small bleachers and knocked over a portable toilet. A few trees around the football field were snapped as well.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:15 UTC and running to 00:43 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:50 UTC | 18:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP |
| 19:15 UTC | 00:43 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | CTP |
| 22:24 UTC | 22:36 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 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 air that afternoon
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.
Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 12:00Z
10.2 hours before the tornado, 107 km from the path. July 29, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 136 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -76 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 73 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1222 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 175 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 213 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 00:00Z
1.8 hours after it, 107 km from the path. July 30, 2021.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1003 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -32 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2613 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 915 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 97 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 134 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 4.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
The radar
The State College radar (KCCX), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:08 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:17 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Sw Ideal | Indiana, PA | BARN ROOF BLOWN OFF STRUCTURE; TIME ESTIMATE BASED ON RADAR |
| 21:20 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Wsw Ideal | Indiana, PA | NWS SURVEY TEAM OBSERVED EF0 TORNADO DAMAGE NEAR GEESEY ROAD, WHERE CORN FIELDS WERE DISRUPTED AND FARM OUTBUILDINGS WERE DAMAGED. TIME ESTIMATE BASED ON RADAR. |
| 21:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Dilltown | Indiana, PA | UTILITY LINES DOWN ALONG DILLTOWN HEIGHTS ROAD IN BUFFINGTON TOWNSHIP |
| 22:10 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nnw Nanty-Glo | Cambria, PA | A TORNADO OCCURRED ON THE EVENING OF JULY 29TH, 2021 NEAR NANTY-GLO, CAMBRIA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. THE TORNADO DEVELOPED ON THE WESTERN SIDE OF THE BLACKLICK VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FIELD AND MOVED SOUTHEAST ACROSS T |
| 22:12 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 N Nanty-Glo | Cambria, PA | BLEACHERS AND A PORTABLE TOILET WHERE KNOCKED OVER AT BLACKLICK VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 29, 2021
36 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 29 | 1:05 AM CDT | EF0 | Jefferson, WI | 6.0 | 100 | |||
| July 29 | 1:07 AM CDT | EF0 | Jefferson, WI | 3.6 | 25 | |||
| July 29 | 1:07 AM CDT | EF1 | Jefferson, WI | 7.7 | 200 | |||
| July 29 | 1:23 AM CDT | EF1 | Jefferson, WI | 4.7 | 150 | |||
| July 29 | 1:26 AM CDT | EF1 | Waukesha, WI | 1.0 | 75 | |||
| July 29 | 1:32 AM CDT | EF0 | Waukesha, WI | 2.4 | 50 | |||
| July 29 | 1:38 AM CDT | EF1 | Waukesha, WI | 0.9 | 95 | |||
| July 29 | 12:40 PM EDT | EF0 | Crawford, PA | 0.6 | 75 | |||
| July 29 | 12:55 PM EDT | EF0 | Venango, PA | 0.3 | 15 | $15,000 | ||
| July 29 | 1:54 PM EDT | EF1 | Westmoreland, PA | 4.9 | 100 | $275,000 | ||
| July 29 | 2:25 PM EDT | EF1 | Somerset, PA | 0.2 | 65 | |||
| July 29 | 4:04 PM EDT | EF1 | Lehigh, PA | 2.9 | 90 | |||
| July 29 | 4:25 PM EDT | EF1 | Lehigh, PA | 1.1 | 75 | |||
| July 29 | 4:50 PM EDT | EF2 | Harrison, OH | 2.7 | 220 | $200,000 | ||
| July 29 | 4:59 PM EDT | EF2 | Carroll, OH | 6.2 | 150 | $500,000 | ||
| July 29 | 5:07 PM EDT | EF0 | Howard, MD | 0.3 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| July 29 | 5:15 PM EDT | EF1 | Jefferson, OH | 2.2 | 300 | $250,000 | ||
| July 29 | 5:16 PM EDT | EF0 | Washington, OH | 0.1 | 55 | $500 | ||
| July 29 | 5:20 PM EDT | EF0 | Indiana, PA | 0.1 | 10 | $50,000 | ||
| July 29 | 5:20 PM EDT | EF0 | Pickaway, OH | 0.9 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| July 29 | 5:34 PM EDT | EF0 | Lebanon, PA | 0.7 | 60 | |||
| July 29 | 5:40 PM EDT | EF1 | Bucks, PA | 2.7 | 70 | |||
| July 29 | 5:45 PM EDT | EF1 | Jefferson, OH | 2.3 | 300 | $250,000 | ||
| July 29 | 5:54 PM EDT | EF0 | Essex, NJ | 0.3 | 50 | $330,000 | ||
| July 29 | 4:59 PM CDT | EF2 | Bucks, PA to NJ | 6.3 | 400 | |||
| July 29 | 6:00 PM EDT | EF1 | Greene, PA | 2.8 | 200 | $100,000 | ||
| July 29 | 5:40 PM CDT | EF0 | Cumberland, IL | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| July 29 | 6:56 PM EDT | EF1 | Mercer, NJ | 1.6 | 100 | |||
| July 29 | 7:04 PM EDT | EF3 | Bensalem tornado, PA | 3.4 | 530 | |||
| July 29 | 7:07 PM EDT | EF0 | Philadelphia, PA | 0.4 | 40 | |||
| July 29 | 7:58 PM EDT | EF1 | Shelby, IN | 2.5 | 50 | $43,000 | ||
| July 29 | 8:04 PM EDT | EF0 | Ocean, NJ | 0.8 | 80 | |||
| July 29 | 8:14 PM EDT | EF1 | Shelby, IN | 0.7 | 50 | $15,000 | ||
| July 29 | 7:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Crawford, IL | 0.4 | 75 | |||
| July 29 | 8:42 PM EDT | EF1 | Ocean, NJ | 6.5 | 250 | |||
| July 29 | 9:03 PM EDT | EF2 | Ocean, NJ | 4.2 | 75 | 8 |
What this means
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.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.