EF2 tornado, Waterman Four Corner to Woodlawn, Rhode Island, August 18, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

August 18, 2023

Touchdown

8:40 AM EDT (12:40 UTC)

Lifted

8:57 AM EDT (12:57 UTC)

On the ground

17 minutes

Path length

9.1 miles (14.6 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$250,000

County

Providence County

Touchdown point

41.799, -71.574

Lift-off point

41.873, -71.435

Record number

2308180640-01

A high amplitude, negatively tilted trough moving across the Great Lakes and into New England along with cold and warm front provided strong forcing which resulted in flooding, wind damage, and 5 tornadoes. In the warm sector dewpoints surged into the mid 70s with PWATs near 2 inches which led to torrential downpours. Tornadoes occurred in Scotland, Ct, Scituate, RI, North Attleboro, MA, Stoughton, MA, and Weymouth, MA. The tornadoes ranged in intensity from EF-0 to EF-2.

A tornado caused significant damage along a discontinuous path|in Scituate, Johnston, and North Providence, Rhode Island. This |is the strongest tornado to have struck Rhode Island since the F-2|tornado in Cranston and Providence on August 7, 1986.||The tornado first touched down near Byron Randall Road in Scituate|which is where the most severe damage occurred. There were hundreds|of large trees either uprooted or snapped at their bases. One |home sustained damage to its roof, the top of its chimney was |blown off, windows were blown in, and an exterior door was |dislodged from its framing. Damage was consistent with winds of |around 115 mph which is classified as EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita|Scale.||The tornado then tracked into Johnston where it crossed I-295 at |Exit 10 and lifted a vehicle into the air before dropping it back |onto the highway. The driver was transported to an area hospital |with minor injuries. From there, the tornado moved across Bridle |Way and Carriage Way where a number of trees were snapped or |uprooted, some of which fell onto homes or vehicles. Some homes |also lost some singles from their roofs. A metal Stop sign pole |was bent in half and the sign was blown away. The tornado then |caused damage in Highland Memorial Park Cemetery where a number of|large trees were either snapped or uprooted. The damage observed |in Johnston was consistent with winds of 90 to 100 mph which is |classified as EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.||Finally, the tornado crossed into North Providence. Similar to|Johnston, a number of trees were either snapped or uprooted, some|falling onto homes or vehicles. Most of the damage observed was to|the north of Mineral Spring Avenue. One of the harder hit areas |included Lydia Avenue, Armand Drive, and Bennett Street where two|homes were made uninhabitable from fallen trees. The damage |observed in North Providence was consistent with winds of 90 to |100 mph which is classified as EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.||The National Weather Service would like to thank the Rhode Island|Emergency Management Agency, the Scituate Police Department, the|Johnston Police Department, the North Providence Fire Department,|and Skywarn Amateur Radio Operators for their assistance with the|damage survey.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS BOX issued a tornado warning for this county at 12:35 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:15 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:51 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 Boston radar (KBOX), 33 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:41 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 Rhode IslandEvery tornado in Rhode Island since 1950Warnings in force in Rhode Island 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.