EF0 tornado in Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Tornado August 23, 2021 · Middlesex County, Massachusetts

EF0

Rating

0.1 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

$2K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

In Stow, a small, brief tornado touched down, causing minor damage along Great Road (State Highway 117) very near the Stow Police Department Headquarters. This tornado knocked down a large tree as well as a large branch, which fell across the road. Similar to the small Bolton tornado, it is believed that a funnel cloud formed to the southeast of the area and then it briefly touched down as it moved northwestward.

The wider storm

Tropical Storm Henri made landfall in southwest Rhode Island around noon on August 22nd, then moved slowly northwestward and westward across northern Connecticut and weakened. Henri brought strong wind gusts and flash flooding. The strongest gusts -- to 70 mph -- occurred along the Rhode Island coast. The worst flash flooding occurred in northeast Connecticut.

As the remnants of Henri moved eastward across southern New England on August 23rd, it spawned three tornadoes and a waterspout in MA and also it caused some renewed flooding.

The highest rainfall totals over the two-day period ranged from 5 to 6 inches in Hartford and Tolland Counties in northern Connecticut and in Franklin, Hampshire, and Hampden Counties in western Massachusetts.

Began near Stow (42.4357, -71.5001).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 Worcester County EF0 Middlesex County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 979155. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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