Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 2025

EF0 tornado, Reinholds, Pennsylvania, May 4, 2025

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Lancaster County on May 4, 2025, touching down at 1:33 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 of property damage.

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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 4, 2025
Touchdown
1:33 PM EDT (17:33 UTC)
Lifted
1:34 PM EDT (17:34 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$30,000
County
Lancaster County
Touchdown point
40.250, -76.115
Lift-off point
40.252, -76.115
Record number
2505041133-01

The damage survey

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CTP and NWS PHI, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 83 mph.

  • Video via social media confirms a brief landspout and/or waterspout occurred over or near the northern portion of Blue March Lake near the community of Mount Pleasant. An initial storm survey did not find an evidence of damage in this area.

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

A stationary front located across southeastern Pennsylvania allowed for thunderstorms to begin forming during the afternoon hours of May 4, 2025. Ample moisture, with low LCL's and marginally sufficient 0-1 km shear values allowed for a brief tornado to form in East Cocalico Township, with peak winds estimated at 80 to 85 mph. The tornado destroyed three sheds and damaged the siding of two houses between Martzall Road and White Oak Road.

A National Weather Service damage survey confirmed an EF0 tornado in East Cocalico Township on the afternoon of May 4, 2025, with peak winds estimated at 80 to 85 mph. The tornado destroyed three sheds and damaged the siding of two houses between Martzall Road and White Oak Road.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:25 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.

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 12:00Z

5.6 hours before the tornado, 182 km from the path. May 4, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 2025-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 36 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 556 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 2025-05-04The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 78 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
36 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
85 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
556 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
87 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 00:00Z

6.4 hours after it, 182 km from the path. May 5, 2025.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 2025-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 836 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 832 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 2025-05-05The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 37 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
836 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1300 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
832 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
37 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 149 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:34 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
17:33 UTCTORNADO2 Ne DenverLancaster, PAA brief tornado occurred between Martzall Road and White Oak Road in East Cocalico Township just northeast of Denver. Damage along the approximately 500 foot path length consisted of three sheds being destroyed and the s
18:11 UTCLANDSPOUT3 E North Heidelberg TwBerks, PAVideo via social media confirms a brief landspout and/or waterspout occurred near the northern end of Blue Marsh Lake in the Blue Marsh National Recreation area near the community of Mount Pleasant. An initial storm surv

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 4, 2025

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 44:59 AM EDTEF0Johnston, NC0.130$20,000
May 42:11 PM EDTUnratedBerks, PA0.430
May 45:57 PM EDTEF0Berks, PA1.735

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.