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EF1 tornado in Kent County, Delaware

Tornado August 4, 2020 · Kent County, Delaware

EF1
Rating
3.0 mi
Path length
200 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado touched down in the vicinity of Road 258 south of

Sandtown Road, then tracked across a section of mostly open fields

but damaged some trees along the way. It then tracked down the

western portion of Sandtown Road closer to Route 10 damaging

several homes and snapping and uprooting several trees. A home had

some windows blown out along with roof damage, another home had

its roof blown off and there was a large garage that had its back

sheet metal wall torn off. The tornado crossed Route 10 near the

intersection with Sandtown Road and moved across the Sandtown

Landfill facility where additional trees were uprooted or snapped,

two front-end loaders had windows blown out and some truck

trailers were flipped over. The tornado exited the landfill and

may have dissipated before reaching the Maryland-Delaware state

line. Doppler radar data showed rotation and a notable tornado

debris signature near and just northwest of Sandtown as debris was

tossed into the air.

The wider storm

Tropical Storm Isaias brought high winds, heavy rain, several tornadoes, and coastal flooding to the mid-Atlantic region, becoming the most impactful tropical cyclone to impact most of the region since Sandy in 2012.

Began near Sandtown (39.0100, -75.6900).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 904087. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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