08/23/2026
Back on July 1, 2021 an EF-1 rain wrapped tornado started just 2 miles ENE outside of Milford, DE and was on the ground for almost 5 miles that ended up impacting Slaughter Beach, DE the hardest.
After a significant heatwave, a cold front approached the mid-Atlantic on July 1, 2021. A potent mid-level trough was also digging southward through southern Ontario and into the Great Lakes region, and a strong upper level jet streak was present downstream the trough axis, over the interior mid-Atlantic and northern New England.
This strong upper level forcing combined with the approaching front and a lingering warm, moist air mass ahead of it caused widespread thunderstorm development on July 1.
Storms occurred almost exclusively south of Interstate 78, in the environment of best instability. A number of storms became severe, taking the form of mainly linear and multi-cellular clusters but with some embedded supercellular characteristics.
Two confirmed EF-1 tornadoes occurred over southern Delaware from a remnant outflow boundary from earlier storms to the north, combined with sea/bay breezes in the area, likely caused a localized enhancement of low level wind shear and created a corridor of enhanced tornado potential.
I remember taking off work early this day and headed south out of Lancaster County, PA to target the Delmarva region. As I headed south I could see a big beefy updraft starting to form, and knew I was going to be in for something later on in the day. I met up the the cell as it tracked across the Chesapeake Bay pushing east. With it pushing east and trying to stay in front of the main line where the strongest velocity was forming I ended up getting caught in some traffic which in turn put me into the RFD part of the storm on the back side. So I was fighting to get visual on it looking through the rain bands but just couldn't quite punch out of it, as it kept moving east.
I ended up being probably not more than 1 mile behind the tornado, as I approached the Milton area and kept moving east towards Slaughter Beach I started coming across some significant damage of what definitely looked like tornado damage. Being the first one on scene I quickly checked the house that lost most of their kitchen roof and thankfully the people that lived there ended up being ok.
Some other damage I came across was done to some pole buildings, sheds, and some flattened corn fields as well as flipping some small trailers.
