Lightning Strike in Pennsylvania, June 30, 2001

Name: Lightning Strike in Pennsylvania, June 30, 2001
Start: 2001-06-30T19:12
End: 2001-06-30T19:12
Location: Pennsylvania

June 30, 2001 · NWS PHI · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Lightning struck the second floor roof of a East Rockhill Township home on Ridge Road. The ensuing fire engulfed the second floor of the house.

Where it happened

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 7
Property damage: $100,000
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.

What happened

The episode as NWS PHI wrote it up.

Lightning struck the second floor roof of a East Rockhill Township home on Ridge Road. The ensuing fire engulfed the second floor of the house. Seven firefighters at the scene were injured when lightning struck a nearby tree and traveled along the ground to them. They experienced numbness, nauseousness, rapid heartbeats and tingling in the extremities. Except for the recreational room, the house was extensively damaged. The damage estimate was expected to exceed $100,000.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Philadelphia/Mount Holly wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jun 30, 3:25 PM EST, 3 hours 47 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 30, 3:25 PM EST, 3 hours 47 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
425 PM EDT SAT JUN 30 2001

SHOWERS AND TSTMS THAT FORMED OFF THE ERN PA HILLS MIGRATING THROUGH
SERN FA ATTIM. IT/S VERY UNSTABLE BUT ONLY APPARENT TRIGGER WAS A
VERY WEAK IMPULSE...POSSIBLY SOME DIF HEATING OFF THE SLOPES. DONT
SEE ANOTHER TRIGGER FOR TONIGHT SO BASICALLY A LINGERING EARLY
CHANCE SE AND THEN PC AND MUGGY. TMRW A PRETTY VIGOROUS SHORT
WAVE...THAT WILL EVENTUALLY TILT NEGATIVE...ROTATES THROUGH THE NERN
U.S. WE APPEAR TO BE JUST S OF THE BEST DYNAMICS...BUT THERE IS A RT
REAR QUAD OF THE UPPER JET...SOME DIFLUENCE ALOFT...SOME DIRECTIONAL
AND A LTL SPEED SHEAR FROM THE SFC TO H7...DECENT MOISTURE AND
INSTABILITY WITH PWATER VALUES BASICALLY IN EXCESS OF 1.5 IN AND
CAPES FCST TO BE IN THE 1000 TO 2000 RANGE. THE SFC ISOBARS KINK AS
THE FNT REACHES FA LATE TRMW AFTN INTO TMRW EVE...AND PERHAPS SFC
CONVERGENCE WILL INCREASE AS FNT APCHS. SPC HAS NRN HALF OF FA IN
MDT RISK AND SRN HALF IN SLGT RISK. HAVE MENTIONED THAT TSTMS COULD
BE STRONG TMRW. ALSO CONT THE URBAN HEAT WARNING/HEAT ADVISORY
TMRW...AS SINCE AM BRINGING THE FRONT IN LATE IN THE AFTN AM
EXPECTING DECENT HEATING SRN FA.

CLEARING US OUT TMRW EVE FOR THE MOST PART...AND AIR BEHIND THE
FRONT NOTICABLY COOLER AND DRIER. ALSO WITH THE DECENT CAA IT SHOULD
BE PLEASANTLY BREEZY ONCE THE TSTMS ARE OVER. SCA CONDS EXPECTED SUN
NIGHT.

.PHI...URBAN HEAT WRNG THRU SUN PA67>71 NJ15-17>19 DE1
       HEAT ADVISORY THIS AFTN NJ16-21>23 MD8-12-15-19-20 DE2-3

MPD

The radar

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 00:12 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.

Lightning, Bucks

When: June 30, 7:12 PM EST
Where: Bucks County, 1 mi NE of Perkasie
Injuries: 7 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $100,000
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 40.337, -75.107 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Lightning: A lightning strike that killed, injured or caused damage.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Pennsylvania in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Pennsylvania, June 2001

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: 5260066.