EF0 tornado, Middleburg to Verdilla, Pennsylvania, September 8, 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

September 8, 2021

Touchdown

5:35 PM EDT (21:35 UTC)

Lifted

5:36 PM EDT (21:36 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

1.4 miles (2.3 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Snyder County

Touchdown point

40.753, -76.913

Lift-off point

40.756, -76.888

Record number

2109081535-01

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CTP, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 94 mph.

• Partial roof collapse of an outbuilding
• Corn laying down mostly east but some other directions too
• Roof blown off barn. Taken SE a few hundred feet away. Downburst.

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

An EF-1 tornado touched down Washington Township, Snyder County in the early evening of September 8, 2021. The tornado tracked southeastward for around three quarters of a mile, and had a maximum path width of around 30 yards.

An EF-0 tornado touched down along Neitz Valley Road to the southeast of Freeburg during the early evening of September 8, 2021. The tornado tracked eastward for a little under 1.5 miles, and had a maximum path width of approximately 30 yards.

An EF-1 tornado touched down along Route 104 just north of Parkwoods Road in Washington Township, Snyder County in the early evening of September 8, 2021. The tornado tracked southeastward for around three quarters of a mile, produced estimated maximum winds of around 95 mph, and had a maximum path width of around 30 yards, before lifting near Redcort Lane. Upwards of 100 trees were knocked down in a forested area near Redcort Lane.

An EF0 tornado touched down along Neitz Valley Road near Bressler Lane, to the southeast of Freeburg, during the early evening of September 8, 2021. The tornado flattened part of a cornfield before tracking southeastward for a little under 1.5 miles. It produced estimated maximum winds of around 80 mph, and had a maximum path width of approximately 30 yards. As the tornado tracked eastward, it snapped and uprooted several trees along and just north of Neitz Valley Road and Produce Road. Trees were also uprooted in a heavily wooded area just north of Inch Hill Road before the tornado lifted.

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.

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:45 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.

Selinsgrove (SEG), 8 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The State College radar (KCCX), 95 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:34 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

2 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.