EF3 Tornado — Bucks, Pennsylvania

2021-07-29 · near Belmont Hills, Bucks, Pennsylvania

Event narrative

The tornado which began in Philadelphia County crossed into Bucks County, where it would produce the majority of its impacts. After crossing the county line, the tornado continued between Trevose Road and Peyton Street

where additional tree damage occurred before crossing Lukens

Street. The tornado then very briefly crossed back into

Philadelphia County at the northern tip of Poquessing Valley Park

where a few trees were uprooted. The tornado then crossed back

into Trevose in Bucks County where it caused some minor cosmetic

damage to some homes in the Beechwood Estates neighborhood and

blew down several sections of vinyl fencing. Several small trees

were also snapped or uprooted in and just south and east of the

residential neighborhood.

As the tornado approached Somerton Road, it began intensifying

and widening substantially as it moved into the Metropolitan

Industrial Center. Numerous softwood and hardwood trees were

snapped or uprooted in the SUEZ Water Company property southwest

of and along Somerton Road. Five wooden power poles were snapped

near the ground along Somerton Road as well at the northern end of

the SUEZ property. All seven warehouse buildings in the

industrial complex northeast of Somerton Road sustained at least

minor damage, with the most significant occurring to the Northtec

building. Numerous roof mounted HVAC units were shifted or blown

off of a few of the buildings in the industrial complex. Open bay

doors in the western- most building caused a non-load bearing

interior wall to collapse. A sedan was lifted and flipped over in

the Northtec parking lot and a steel flag pole bearing a flag

flattened completely to the ground. The Northtec building

sustained substantial structural damage where large sections of

roofing material were removed. Additionally, numerous exterior

paneling was blown off, garage bay doors were blown out, a few

windows were blown out, and at least two large HVAC units were

blown off of the building. Numerous softwood and hardwood trees

were uprooted or snapped in the industrial complex and immediately

adjacent areas.

A cellphone tower adjacent to the industrial complex had all of

the antennas blown off, but the tower itself did not collapse.

Southeast of the industrial complex, minor cosmetic damage

occurred to some homes along Carter Road in a residential

neighborhood. Tree damage associated with the tornado occurred

along Carter Road and Sussex Road north of Buckfield Terrace. This

was the area where the tornado circulation reached its widest

extent of around three tenths of a mile. As the tornado neared and

crossed the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I- 276), an overhead roadway

information sign was blown off and a portion of it landed

downstream nearly a half mile away. Just north of the turnpike,

minor cosmetic damage occurred to a hotel building where a tree

was also uprooted in the parking lot. A large billboard was blown

over just north of the turnpike and south of Street Road. A small

utility building nearby had its roof blown off. The northern- most

extent of the damage occurred on the Toscana 52 restaurant

property where the tornado blew down some chain link fencing and

uprooted a few small trees in the parking lot.

The tornado continued east-northeastward across Street Road

toward the Faulkner car dealership complex where it began

intensifying and somewhat narrowing its path of damage. The four

dealership showrooms sustained significant damage where most

windows were blown out and at least some roofing material was

blown off. The most significant damage occurred to the Buick/GMC

showroom where most of the roofing material was blown off, all

windows and doors were blown out, and exterior walls exhibited

fracturing due to stress from the wind. Roof HVAC units of this

building were tossed into the parking lot behind the building. All

of the dealership signs near the main road were destroyed. Scores

of new and used vehicles sustained significant damage from flying

debris or from being pushed or tossed trough the air.

The tornado continued toward the dealership's main service garage

where the most significant damage occurred. The southwestern

portion of the building was destroyed with most exterior walls

collapsing completely and all roofing material blown off. Interior

walls mostly remained standing. Roof HVAC units were tossed off

of the building with one unit landing nearly 200 yards downstream

of the building. Damage sustained to the building decreased

somewhat toward the eastern end of it where portions of the

exterior walls were damaged and almost all garage bay doors were

blown out. The wind rushing through the garage area carried

debris, car parts, and tools well away from the structure

downstream. Some vehicles near the main garage building were

completely destroyed from large pieces of flying debris or from

being tossed and dropped back onto the ground. A small pickup

truck was crushed from a collapsed exterior wall. Five people

reportedly sustained minor injuries at the dealership complex.

The tornado continued east-northeast toward the Weisser Homes

mobile home park and into an area of trees which sustained

significant damage. Most tree canopies and limbs were completely

stripped from the still standing or snapped trunks of hardwood

trees in this area. A large storage container filled with car

parts from the service garage parking lot upstream was lofted into

the air and dropped into this area of trees. An uninhabited

mobile home model was lifted and completely destroyed at the

mobile home park. Another double-wide mobile home had a large

portion of its roof blown off. Several other mobile home sustained

varying degrees of damage as well. A large amount of various

debris from the dealership complex landed in this mobile home

park. Numerous softwood and hardwood trees near and just

downstream of this area were snapped or uprooted along Old Lincoln

Highway.

At this stage, the tornado damage path narrowed considerably and

intensity weakened significantly as it crossed Old Lincoln Highway

and moved toward the Lowe's and Walmart shopping centers on Route

1. The tornado passed over these shopping centers, but no

structural damage was noted to these structures. Numerous small

trees were snapped and uprooted in the large parking lot area and

line of trees just north of the Bensalem turnpike interchange.

Some exit ramp signs were blown down in the interchange area.

The tornado damage became somewhat discontinuous as it continued

east-southeast into Bensalem across Route 1 and toward a

residential neighborhood. Several homes in the neighborhood

sustained loss of some roofing material and other cosmetic damage

in addition to some tree damage. The tornado continued across

Rockhill Road and along Richlieu Road toward the Christian Life

Center where several trees were snapped or uprooted. The church's

steeple had some paneling blown off, but the steeple itself was

not damaged otherwise. The tornado continued weakening as it

crossed Galloway Road then dissipated in the Bensalem Township

Community Park where some minor tree damage occurred.

No known serious injuries or fatalities occurred from this

tornado.

Wider weather episode

A strong shortwave trough moved east-southeastward out of the Great Lakes region on July 29. An associated, strengthening surface low also tracked out of the Great Lakes and into upstate New York. A warm front associated with this low moved through most of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania during the late morning and early afternoon hours. This front, combined with the remains of widespread convection to the west from the previous overnight and morning hours, brought significant cloud cover to the eastern mid-Atlantic for much of the day on the 29th. This was mainly in the form of mid and high level cloud cover, however, and temperatures still warmed to near seasonal levels behind the warm front, allowing moderate to strong instability to build. Meanwhile, the robust surface and upper level disturbances approaching the region brought both strong forcing and unseasonably strong wind shear. By mid-afternoon, an unusually favorable convective environment existed over eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The result of this environment was a rare tornado outbreak across the area. Initially, during the mid-afternoon hours, mixed convective modes over east-central Pennsylvania produced a couple instances of damaging wind and brief tornadoes as storms attempted to overcome cloud cover and some light stratiform rain in the area. With time, as storms moved into better instability and a less contaminated environment over far eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they took on more supercellular structures. Multiple cyclic supercells would go on to produce several tornadoes, three of them strong (EF2+) over eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Convection persisted past the sunset hour with little to no loss in intensity due to the strong forcing. The only thing that put an end to the outbreak was the coastline, as storms moved offshore towards 9 to 10PM local time. Even offshore, one supercell continued to exhibit strong rotation and likely produced a strong waterspout for tens of miles over the Atlantic.

Fortunately, and miraculously, no serious injuries or loss of life occurred as a result of this outbreak. With the passage of a cold front late on the evening of the 29th, cooler, drier, and much less active weather would grace the region for several days as clean-up efforts began.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.1321, -74.9935)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 971958. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.