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F1 tornado in Chester County, Pennsylvania

Tornado November 26, 1999 · Chester County, Pennsylvania

F1
Rating
1.8 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
12
Injuries
$3.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F1 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F1 meant moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken; the scale paired it with winds of 73–112 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

An unseasonably warm and humid air mass and an approaching cold front combined to produce a tornado (F1 on the Fujita Scale) in Honey Brook near 6 p.m. EST. About a dozen people were injured. Two barns and four houses were destroyed, twenty-five other homes were damaged. A warehouse was also badly damaged. About 35 families were evacuated. Damage was estimated at 3 million dollars. Based on the storm survey, winds were near the high range of the F1 tornado scale and were estimated to be around 100 mph.The tornado touched down near Diane Drive then moved on a north path paralleling Pennsylvania State Route 10 and crossed U.S. Route 322 near the Zook's Molasses Warehouse. The tornado made a slight turn to the east after crossing Rodd Road and lifted near a quarry near Welsh Road. The tornado was on the ground for about 1.8 miles. Its path width was estimated at 100 yards.A house on Diane Drive had the appearance of an implosion. On Walnut Drive was destroyed, two others were badly damaged. One house on Meadow Drive was missing a wall and a large portion of its roof. On Route 10, the tornado ripped the roof and the third floor off the barn. A father and his three sons that were milking the cows when the tornado passed were injured, two seriously. The tornado proceeded to destroy the two silos on the farm. Across the street, the tornado ripped the roof from the three story Zook Molasses Company Warehouse. A gas leak at the site forced the evacuations of 30 families. Twisted and mangled pieces of sheet metal dotted the landscape. Furniture and insulation was lodeged in tree tops. Roofs, walls and even bathtubs were found in fields.Daily high temperature records were tied at both the Philadelphia (70 degrees) and the Lehigh Valley (67 degrees) International Airports on the 26th.

Began near Honey Brook (40.1000, -75.9200).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5721762. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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