Confirmed tornado in Upper Bucks sent debris up to 4,000 feet into the air
The tornado had peak winds of 100 mph and traveled two miles over four minutes, uprooting numerous trees and causing some building damage.
The National Weather Service confirmed Friday that it was indeed a tornado with peak winds of 100 mph late Thursday night in Upper Bucks County that lifted debris so high into the air — up to 4,000 feet — that it was captured by radar.
After beginning its four-minute career at 9:48 p.m. near Dublin Pike in Hilltown Township, where it blew the door off a CVS Pharmacy, it traveled two miles into Bedminster Township, uprooting numerous trees and causing structural damage to several buildings and houses, weather service investigators said.
No fatalities or injuries were reported.
The twister was ranked as an EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale of intensity.
It had a “tornadic debris signature” in which the “debris has been lifted high enough that it’s being picked up by radar,” said Sarah Johnson, a lead meteorologist at the weather service’s Mount Holly office. “It’s not a common occurrence.”
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It was the first tornado of the year for the Mount Holly coverage area, which includes the entire Philadelphia region, Delaware, and most of New Jersey.
What hit Upper Bucks was spawned by a line of powerful storms that were moving as slowly as SEPTA commuter trains on a stormy night.
It arrived in the Philadelphia region up to three hours behind schedule, she said, as the storms were rippling more from the southwest to the northeast. One computer model appeared to have the timing right, but it was an outlier, and the forecast was based on the model consensus.
That delayed arrival likely had a muting effect on the storms’ potency: Johnson said had they arrived closer to sunset they might have been able to exploit some of the sun’s energy.
The weather service posted only a handful of storm reports, including penny-size hail in Montgomery County and thunderstorm damage in Chester County.
The only tornado warning issued was for the Bucks twister.
No tornadoes were in the forecast Friday, but the winds did kick up during the afternoon with a 37 mph gust reported at Philadelphia International Airport. They were expected to die down peacefully overnight, and Saturday should be splendidly sunny and calm, with highs in the 50s.