A tornado touched down near Middletown for about two minutes on Sunday afternoon, the National Weather Service confirmed Monday evening. There were no injuries reported.
The tornado was rated an EF-1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale, with wind speeds reaching up to 100 mph, according to the National Weather Service. It’s two categories lower than April’s tornado, which had peak winds of over 140 mph and killed one person near Greenwood.
The National Weather Service said the tornado began at 4:49 p.m. Sunday in a field north of Route 896 and west of North Bayberry Parkway. Nearby houses were already slightly damaged from strong winds before the tornado formed, the National Weather Service said, but most of it was “cosmetic.”
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The tornado moved northeast once it formed, uprooting trees and damaging a playground and pavilion in a nearby park. It continued across a field and pond before blowing down the fence in front of a home on Plato Place, according to the National Weather Service.
More trees were uprooted as the tornado moved along Milford Drive, where meteorologists said it grew to its maximum width of 200 yards. For comparison, April’s tornado was about half a mile wide at its largest.
The National Weather Service reported that, as the tornado moved along Milford Drive and Ethel Court, multiple homes were damaged, with reports ranging from blown-off shingles and shutters to a destroyed back deck porch roof.
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The most significant damage was reported in the tornado’s path on Bullen Drive, where the National Weather Service said that one home had an upstairs window blown out, an exterior wall nearly collapsed and an attached garage roof blown off into the front yard.
Meteorologists said the tornado dissipated at 4:51 p.m. near Hyett’s Corner Road, 1.19 miles from where it started. Though continued strong winds knocked over a semi-truck on Route 1 and blew down corn in a field on U.S. Route 13, the National Weather Service said there was no evidence of a tornado there.
Send story tips or ideas to Hannah Edelman at hedelman@delawareonline.com. For more reporting, follow them on Twitter at @h_edelman.
