NWS Confirms Tornado Touched Down In Bucks County

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — The National Weather Service confirmed on Thursday afternoon what residents of parts of Bucks and Montgomery counties probably already knew to be true: a tornado touched down in the area during the severe weather front that hit the area Wednesday.

The tornado touched down near the border of Lehigh and Bucks counties at around 3:15 p.m., experts said.

Survey work was still ongoing early Thursday afternoon in both Bucks and Montgomery counties to determine if, and where else, the tornado may have touched down.

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NWS is classifying Wednesday's tornado as an "EF0" on the Enhanced Fujita scale of tornado severity, meaning that its winds did not exceed 85 miles per hour. '

That's slightly less severe than the EF1 tornado — winds between 86 and 110 miles per hour — that hit the Ottsville area in Bucks County back on May 19.

It's a remarkable turn of events for a region that very rarely sees such weather. According to storm chaser Ed Sweeney, the May 19 tornado was the first tornado in Bucks County in 22 years, with the last coming in Sept. 1997.

Now there have been two confirmed in the county in a matter of days.

That's in addition to the tornado that was confirmed in Berks County on Tuesday, and that scattered damage throughout nearby Chester County.

Already in 2019, Pennsylvania has had 23 confirmed tornadoes, already exceeding in May the amount that is average in the state for the entire year.