EF1 tornado, (Abe)Lehigh Valley International Airport, Pennsylvania, August 7, 2023

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

August 7, 2023

Touchdown

7:21 PM EDT (23:21 UTC)

Lifted

7:23 PM EDT (23:23 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

160 yards (146 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lehigh County

Touchdown point

40.630, -75.425

Lift-off point

40.634, -75.422

Record number

2308071721-01

47 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 100 mph.

• large branches snapped at top and along trunk
• branches showed signs of rot
• numerous trees down on Saucon Valley Road; closed road
• tree fell directly across road, but is very rotted. possible it cracked from wind and fell on its own weight

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

A strong system and associated cold front moved into eastern Pennsylvania, bringing damaging winds and a tornado threat on August 7th.

On the evening of August 7th, an EF-1 tornado occurred, primarily in the Midway Manor neighborhood of Allentown, Pennsylvania. The tornado began near East Pennsylvania Street between North Ulster Street and North Van Buren Street. At this location, damage to the roof of a church and a neighboring shed was seen with multiple shingles removed and displaced. A large hardwood tree was also uprooted in this area, falling to the north as it was uprooted. The tornado then continued to the northeast towards East Lily Street and North Wahneta Street causing sporadic tree damage along the way. As the tornado crossed North Wahneta Street, the amount of damage began to increase with a shed removed from its foundation and tossed about 50 feet northwest. Multiple trees were uprooted or snapped in this area as well. As the tornado continued to the northeast, approaching and crossing East Fairmont Street, it reached its maximum width, around 160 yards. It is also reached its maximum intensity, causing damage to multiple homes. The greatest damage was to homes along the west side of Club Avenue, where multiple homes lost between 30 and 50 percent of their roof covering. One home had a front porch awning taken off the east side of the house, lofted, then landed about 100 feet away in the backyard of a house two doors down. Additionally, damaged crops in the backyard of a home where fallen in a manner consistent with a convergent wind pattern. The tornado continued northeast across Club Avenue, crossing into Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Here, the tornado began to weaken, but still snapped or took large branches down on multiple trees. The tornado then dissipated as it approached Pennsylvania Avenue. No known injuries or fatalities occurred with this tornado.

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 tornado watch, issued at 19:15 UTC and running to 00:44 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 20:00 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 Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:20 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 2023 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

19 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.