Tornadoes in Pennsylvania, September 5, 1979

Name: Tornadoes in Pennsylvania, September 5, 1979
Start: 1979-09-05T20:30
End: 1979-09-05T21:15
Location: Pennsylvania

September 5, 1979 · 2 events in 2 counties and zones

2 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 4
Property damage: $2.8 million
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Event by event

2 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Chester

When: September 5, 8:30 PM CST
Where: Chester County
Rating: F2
Path length: 4.1 mi
Path width: 63 yd
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Injuries: 4 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $2.5 million
Coordinates: 39.770, -75.730

Tornado, Berks

When: September 5, 9:15 PM CST
Where: Berks County
Rating: F2
Path length: 1 mi
Path width: 30 yd
Property damage: $250,000
Coordinates: 40.350, -75.800

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Tornado, Chester	1979-09-05				Direct

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Pennsylvania in 1979 Every state in 1979 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Pennsylvania, 1979

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 10114754, 10114755.