High Wind — Bucks, Pennsylvania

2002-09-11 · Bucks, Pennsylvania

Wider weather episode

The pressure difference between a strong high pressure system in the central part of the country and Tropical Storm Gustav located well east of the Delmarva Peninsula produced strong gusty northwest winds throughout the day on the 11th. Winds frequently gusted between 35 and 45 mph throughout the day and caused considerably more tree damage than usually occurs with winds of that speed. A male passenger was killed in an automobile on U.S. Route 202 in Buckingham Township when a large tree limb fell on the vehicle. The driver was not hurt. Two state Department of Environmental Protection workers received minor injuries when they could not stop their truck before hitting the limb. In Horsham Township (Montgomery County), a downed tree brought down three sets of wires and caused a large power outage within the township. A similar occurrence happened in Langhorne Borough (Bucks County). Downed wires caused several small brush fires throughout Eastern Pennsylvania. In Monroe County, 7,000 homes and businesses lost power. Some stores closed for the day. Several hundred people also lost phone service. PECO Energy reported about 42,000 of its customers lost power during the afternoon. The number was reduced to about 28,000 at 6 p.m. EDT. Peak wind gusts included 46 mph at the Lehigh Valley International Airport, 45 mph at the Northeast Philadelphia Airport, 44 mph at the Philadelphia International Airport and Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport (Luzerne County), 43 mph in Reading (Berks County), 41 mph in Doylestown (Bucks County), 39 mph in Pottstown (Montgomery County) and 36 mph in Mount Pocono. Most of the peak wind gusts occurred during the early afternoon. This was the first widespread wind gusts of these speeds since May 14th. It was suspected tree damage occurred because its been four months since similar gusts happened and because the gusty winds persisted for an extended part of the day.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5321078. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.