EF1 tornado, Midland to Freedom, Pennsylvania, October 16, 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

October 16, 2021

Touchdown

6:16 AM EDT (10:16 UTC)

Lifted

6:18 AM EDT (10:18 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.1 miles (3.4 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Beaver County

Touchdown point

40.674, -80.270

Lift-off point

40.689, -80.235

Record number

2110160416-01

15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PBZ, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

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

A lone supercell, that advanced along a cold front, formed in the early morning hours of October 16th. This cell had a history of tornadoes before tracking into eastern Ohio and western PA. The supercell was located near a mesoscale low and/or mesoscale vortex, which supported locally enhanced helicity. Furthermore, this cell was in an area of relatively stronger low-level instability. Surface dew points were favorable, low/mid 60s, prior to touch down and there were backed surface winds.

A EF0 tornado touched down in the town of Shippingport early|Saturday morning before daybreak. The damage was located on |Second Avenue with three trees being uprooted. The tornado |traveled east and blew the roof off a pavilion behind the |Shippingport municipal building then continued to uproot and tear |off large branches until it lifted before reaching Shippingport|Hill Road. Estimated Maximum Wind Speed...95 mph.

A new tornado, from the same storm cell that affected Shippingport earlier, touched down in the Jackson Ave area of Monaca then continued east, uprooting hardwood and softwood trees. A car windshield was damaged due to a tree falling on it on the aforementioned street. Tree damage was visible along Elkhorn Road with numerous hardwood trees down. A mobile home lost its roof due to the storm. There was a brief lull in the damage as the tornado crossed the Ohio River into Freedom. The damage quickly picked up with damage observed on 4th Ave. The worst damage |was observed on this side of the river.||Scattered down trees and large branches were visible along 9th Ave Ext into New Sewickley Township. At the top of the hill and points east along Harvey Run Road at least 30 trees were uprooted. There was no structural damage observed apart from the awning of a front porch in the city of Freedom, which was displaced by a falling tree.|Estimated Maximum Wind Speed...85 mph.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS PBZ issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:07 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:30 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:03 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 Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 17 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:13 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

4 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.