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EF2 tornado in Bucks County, Pennsylvania

Tornado August 4, 2020 · Bucks County, Pennsylvania

EF2

Rating

20.8 mi

Whole path

500 yd

Path width

Injuries

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Bucks County → Philadelphia County → Bucks County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado touched down just east of the Philadelphia Mills Mall as it moved in a northwesterly direction. The initial touchdown occurred in Bucks County, very near the Philadelphia County border. Uprooted trees were found near the area of Kings Ave and Paradise Ave. The tornado then quickly approached the county line at Pocquessing Creek.

The wider storm

Tropical Storm Isaias brought high winds, heavy rain, several tornadoes, and coastal flooding to the mid-Atlantic region, becoming the most impactful tropical cyclone to impact most of the region since Sandy in 2012. Flash flooding as a result of heavy rain caused two direct deaths from this event...one in Lehigh County and the other in Montgomery County.

Began near Cornwells Hgts (40.0815, -74.9592).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF0 Montgomery County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 904094. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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