EF1 tornado, Kirkwood to Bartville, Pennsylvania, May 27, 2022

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

May 27, 2022

Touchdown

2:11 PM EDT (18:11 UTC)

Lifted

2:16 PM EDT (18:16 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.0 miles (4.9 km)

Path width

130 yards (119 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

Property damage

$325,000

County

Lancaster County

Touchdown point

39.855, -76.080

Lift-off point

39.891, -76.046

Record number

2205271211-01

27 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 105 mph.

• After crossing Rosedale Rd, the tornado then destroyed two barns and a shed. Wooden beams from one of the barns were carried by the tornado as projectiles and penetrated the and landed through NW facing wall of another barn on the property. A house on the property was also damaged, with some siding dented, broken, or removed, and the partial collapse of a basement wall on the NW facing side of the house.
• The tornado continued to produce significant damage as it hit another farm on Highland Rd. Two barns had their roofs completely removed. A third barn lost about half of its roof. A fourth structure, which appeared to be a shed without walls, collapsed. Two silos were also damaged, including the removal of the top of one of the silos.
• A second small shed behind property on the 300 block of Maple Shade Rd was destroyed, with debris carried over 200 yards toward the N and NE.
• The tornado intensified as it moved northeast and caused near complete destruction of a large barn on a property on Farmdale Rd. Three of the barn’s 4 walls were removed, as well as all of the roof, with debris carried more than 200 yards toward the NE. A second large barn was partially destroyed, with one wall completely removed, two walls partially removed, and half of the roof removed. Two large hardwood trees were downed on the property, pointing North toward the centerline of the tornado track.

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

A tornado touched down in Kirkwood, Lancaster County on May 27, 2022. The tornado had estimated peak winds of 105 mph (EF-1), with a max path width of 130 yards and a path length of just over 3 miles.

A tornado touched down in Kirkwood, Lancaster County on May 27, 2022. The tornado had estimated peak winds of 105 mph (EF-1), with a max path width of 130 yards and a path length of just over 3 miles. The tornado touched down on the 400 block of Maple Shade Rd, where it uprooted 2 large hardwood trees and 1 large softwood tree at a private residence. The tornado moved ENE and downed several large tree limbs and did minor siding damage to a building at the corner of Maple Shade Rd and Kirkwood Pike. A crop field behind the post office on the north side of Kirkwood Pike showed a clear pattern of convergence within the crops blown down by the tornado as it continued moving towards the NE. The tornado then destroyed a small shed constructed with|cinder block walls, carrying contents from inside the shed toward the NNE. Large limbs from trees to the southeast of the shed were knocked down and facing the NW, towards the centerline of the tornado track. A second small shed behind property on the 300|block of Maple Shade Rd was destroyed, with debris carried over 200 yards toward the N and NE. The tornado intensified to EF-1 strength as it moved northeast and caused near complete destruction of a large barn on a property on Farmdale Rd. Three of the 4 barn walls were removed, as well as all of the roof, with debris carried more than 200 yards toward the NE. A second large barn was partially destroyed, with one wall completely removed, two walls partially removed, and half of the roof removed. There was one minor injury of scratches due to flying debris. Two large hardwood trees were downed on the property, pointing north toward the centerline of the tornado track. The tornado continued moving northeast, putting a dent into the southeast side of one large silo before causing crop damage in a large field. The pattern of crop damage was strongly convergent, with crops on the right periphery of the tornado track laying|towards the WNW and crops on the left periphery of the tornado track laying towards the ESE. The tornado crossed over E Salem Rd near Ridge Rd, where it downed several large trees and snapped several others. Several more trees were uprooted farther north along Ridge Rd. The tornado then approached Rosedale Rd, uprooting and snapping a couple dozen trees on a private residence near Coopers Run. After crossing Rosedale Rd, the tornado then destroyed two barns and a shed. Wooden beams from one of the barns were carried by the tornado as projectiles that penetrated through the NW facing wall of another barn on the property. A house on the property was also damaged, with some siding dented, broken, or removed, and the partial collapse of a basement wall on the NW facing side of the house. The collapse of the basement wall caused minor cuts and scratches to at least two people taking shelter in the basement. The top of a farm silo was also removed. The tornado continued to produce significant damage as it hit another farm on Highland Rd. Two barns had their roofs completely removed. A third barn lost about half of its roof. A fourth structure, which appeared to be a shed without walls, collapsed. Two silos were also damaged, including the removal of the top of one of the silos. The intensity of the tornado decreased as it approached one more farm on Rynear Rd near Bells Run. The tornado partially removed the roof from one barn on the property. The tornado then moved northeast across Rynear Rd and downed a few tree limbs along Bells Run.

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 16:57 UTC and running to 18:45 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 16:29 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.

Coatesville (MQS), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Dover AFB radar (KDOX), 128 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:09 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 2022 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.