Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 1993
F1 tornado, Springfield to Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, September 27, 1993
From Springfield to Drexel Hill, this F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Delaware County on September 27, 1993, touching down at 2:15 PM EDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500,000 to $5 million of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2113 to 157 mph
Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.
F3158 to 206 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5261 to 318 mph
Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.
Unrated
The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.
The record
- Rating
- F1
- Date
- September 27, 1993
- Touchdown
- 2:15 PM EDT (18:15 UTC)
- Path length
- 3.0 miles (4.8 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $500,000 to $5 million
- County
- Delaware County
- Touchdown point
- 39.930, -75.350
- Lift-off point
- 39.950, -75.330
- Record number
- 1090
What the Weather Service recorded
A funnel cloud was first spotted by two police officers about 700 feet above the ground in Media. The tornado then touched down 1 mile north of the intersection of the US Route 1 bypass and Route 320. It moved northeast toward Drexel Hill and northern Springfield where apparently dissipated. The storm uprooted and twisted off several trees before tearing off part of the roof of the Marple Place apartments. The Springfield Republican Leader's home was hit hard by the tornado. More than 20 large trees (some of them were over 200 years old and more than 150 feet tall) came down in his yard, two of which crashed onto the roof of his home on Township Line road. A large tree also fell through the roof of a two story home on Spring Alley Road in Springfield causing extensive damage to the second floor. An entire row of large trees were uprooted in front of the Springfield police chief's home on Kerr Lane. Several other homes and vehicles were damaged by falling trees and blowing debris and cars were moved in the twisters path. No deaths or injuries were reported. Additionally, 40,00 customers lost power countywide.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.
Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.
The forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:10 UTC.
SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.
The surface observations
Philadelphia Intl (PHL), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:22 UTC | 140° 20 kt | 1007.5 | ||||
| 17:00 UTC | 83 | 76 | 170° 23 kt | 26 | 1006.4 | |
| 17:08 UTC | 200° 20 kt | 29 | 1006.4 | |||
| 18:00 UTC | 84 | 73 | 160° 22 kt | 35 | 1004.4 | |
| 19:00 UTC | 83 | 73 | 140° 20 kt | 1003.7 | ||
| 19:32 UTC | 130° 18 kt | 1001.7 | TS | |||
| 19:38 UTC | 160° 24 kt | 34 | 1003 | TSRA | ||
| 20:00 UTC | 73 | 70 | 300° 28 kt | 37 | 1004.1 | -TSRA FG |
| 20:12 UTC | 300° 25 kt | 35 | 1004.7 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1993 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of September 27, 1993
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 27 | 11:00 AM EDT | F1 | Page, VA | 0.5 | 100 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| September 27 | 11:58 AM EDT | F2 | Fauquier, VA | 3.0 | 100 | 2 | $50,000 to $500,000 | |
| September 27 | 12:42 PM EDT | F1 | Montgomery, MD | 0.2 | 50 | $50 to $500 | ||
| September 27 | 1:33 PM EDT | F0 | Fairfax, VA | 0.2 | 13 | $50 to $500 | ||
| September 27 | 1:35 PM EDT | F2 | New Castle, DE | 10.0 | 100 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| September 27 | 1:55 PM EDT | F1 | Cecil, MD | 6.0 | 30 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| September 27 | 2:00 PM EDT | F1 | New Castle, DE | 7.0 | 50 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| September 27 | 2:15 PM EDT | F1 | Anne Arundel, MD | 8.0 | 23 | 2 | $500 to $5,000 | |
| September 27 | 2:50 PM EDT | F1 | Bucks, PA | 2.5 | 100 | $500,000 to $5 million | ||
| September 27 | 9:20 PM EDT | F1 | Carteret, NC | 2.0 | 20 | $500,000 to $5 million |
What this means
Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.
Sources
NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.