Tornadoes confirmed in Chester County and South Jersey

Storms that hit the Philadelphia region Friday brought heavy thunderstorms and confirmed tornadoes in Chester County and South Jersey.

The National Weather Service office in Mount Holly confirmed Friday evening that an EF-0 tornado, which includes wind gusts of 65 to 85 miles per hour, touched down in Pemberton Township, Burlington County. Later, the office confirmed another tornado in West Caln Township, Chester County, but the severity had yet to be determined. More details were not immediately available.

The weather service began issuing tornado warnings just after 11 a.m. Friday, with the first impacting parts of Berks and Chester Counties. Brief warnings for other areas in Chester, Montgomery, and Delaware Counties, and part of South Jersey, followed.

While other tornado warnings were possible for the region throughout the duration of the storms, the weather service was primarily focused on tracking potentially damaging wind and hail, meteorologist Cameron Wunderlin said.

“The primary concern is not tornadoes. It’s wind and hail today,” Wunderlin said. “We’re leaning more toward wind than hail.”

The weather service issued the tornado warnings earlier on Friday because it observed the potential for them to develop in a line of thunderstorms traveling over the region.

Most of Southeastern Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia and its surrounding area, was at a marginal risk for severe weather, while the southern third of New Jersey had a slight risk, according to the weather service. Based on the service’s modeling, Wunderlin said he expected the threat of severe weather to clear the Philadelphia area by around 8 p.m., and the entire region by 9 p.m.

As of Friday afternoon, between 1.5 and 2 inches of rain had fallen on the region. The weather service issued a flash-flood warning for Bucks and Philadelphia Counties just before 1 p.m., noting that flooding from the storm could hit small creeks, streams, highways, streets, and underpasses. The office encouraged motorists who encounter flooded roads to not attempt to drive on them.

By Saturday, the threat of severe weather will likely have passed the region, shifting northward. There may be showers and some thunder, but nothing potentially severe like Friday’s storms.

“There’s no severe weather,” Wunderlin said.