Two tornadoes confirmed in Delaware. More showers possible on a cool Saturday in the Philly region.
Temperatures Saturday were expected to be 25 degrees or more cooler than they were Wednesday. But no tornadoes were expected.
![Rush hour downpour as a person crosses the street at 18th and Walnut on Thursday. A twister visited Delaware.](https://www.inquirer.com/resizer/NQNcOSvfHjYzNJer6bHIhoY2TbE=/760x507/smart/filters:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/NMLGEOQ76VGNLON5RHPKXPDROU.jpg)
Two EF-1 tornadoes, with peak winds of 90 mph, touched down in Delaware during Thursday’s severe storm outbreaks, the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly has confirmed.
The twisters, one in the Dover area and the other about 20 miles south, marked the first tornadoes this year in the office’s coverage area, which includes the Diamond State, eastern Pennsylvania, and most of New Jersey. In fact, Thursday’s storms generated the first tornado “warnings” of the season, weather service meteorologist Nicholas Carr said Saturday.
The first twister touched down in Farmington, Kent County, at 4:52 p.m., traveled three minutes and 3.9 miles to near Houston, knocking down trees in bowling-ball fashion and tearing metal roofing off a building housing a business.
About 20 miles to the south, the second one cut a 4.77-mile, 100-yard-wide path from Milford to Slaughter Beach, damaging some residences.
No tornadoes were reported on Friday, but the region did play dodgeball with strong thunderstorms, and nature clearly got the best of parts of Philadelphia, Montgomery County, and South Jersey with downpours triggering flood warnings.
» READ MORE: A tornado outbreak killed 64 people in Pennsylvania 35 years ago. We still know terrifyingly little about the storms.
The signature feature Saturday would be the chill. Highs were expected to struggle to get past 70 — 25-plus degrees cooler than they were on Wednesday. The record-low maximum temperature for a July 3 is 65, set in 1933.
Showers are likely again in the afternoon, and maybe a thunderstorm.
» READ MORE: Most warnings are false alarms, but tornado watches get attention — with good reason
It will warm up Sunday with highs near 80, plenty of sun, and just an outside shot at a shower, forecasters say. Monday should be completely dry with temperature readings well into the 80s.