Pennsylvania, 1999

Tornado in Pennsylvania, November 26, 1999

November 26, 1999 · NWS PHI · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 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
0
Injuries
12
Property damage
$3.0 million
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
1

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.

The radar

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 130 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:59 UTC.

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Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Chester

When
November 26, 5:57 PM EST
Where
Chester County, Honey Brook
Rating
F1
Path length
1.8 mi
Path width
100 yd
Injuries
12 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage
$3.0 million
Reported by
NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates
40.100, -75.920

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.

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

More

Every storm in Pennsylvania in 1999Every state in 1999This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Pennsylvania, 1999Warnings in Pennsylvania, November 1999

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: 5721762.