Tornado outbreak of July 28–29, 2021

Tornado outbreak of July 28–29, 2021
EF2 damage to a home in New Athens, Ohio
TypeTornado outbreak
DurationJuly 28–29, 2021
Highest winds
Tornadoes
confirmed
46
Max. rating1EF3 tornado
Duration of
tornado outbreak2
23 hours, 33 minutes
Largest hailUnknown
Fatalities0 (+1 non-tornadic), 13 injuries
Damage$315 million (2021 USD)
Areas affectedGreat Lakes, Ohio Valley, and Mid-Atlantic, U.S.

1Most severe tornado damage; see Enhanced Fujita scale
2Time from first tornado to last tornado

An unusually prolific summer tornado outbreak affected parts of the Northern United States from the late evening and overnight hours of July 28 into the early morning hours of July 29. It started with a powerful line of severe thunderstorms that produced widespread damaging straight-line winds and multiple embedded weak tornadoes across the state of Wisconsin. During the afternoon and evening of July 29, numerous tornadic supercells developed across portions of the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic regions, producing many tornadoes. A few of the tornadoes were strong and damaging, including an EF3 tornado that caused severe damage in the Philadelphia suburbs of Trevose and Bensalem.

A motorist was killed after driving into a tree felled by straight line-winds near Ripon, Wisconsin, though no tornado-related fatalities occurred. The tornado outbreak was the largest for the combined region of southeast Pennsylvania and New Jersey on record.