F1 tornado, Blandon, Pennsylvania, March 9, 1998

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. 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.

7. 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.

Rating

F1

Date

March 9, 1998

Touchdown

7:33 PM EST (00:33 UTC)

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Berks County

Touchdown point

40.430, -75.880

Lift-off point

40.430, -75.880

Record number

94

A line of severe thunderstorms moved through Berks County Pennsylvania the evening of March 9th and knocked down tree limbs and power lines from Spring Township northeast through Kutztown. The worst damage occurred when the thunderstorm dropped a weak tornado (F1 on the Fujita Scale) in Blandon located in southern Maiden Creek Township a little after 730 p.m. EST. The tornado touched down on Pennsylvania State Route 73 (Main Street) in Blandon. It moved northeast nearly along Willow Creek and parallel to U.S. Route 222. Homes along Cornerstone Drive in the Maiden Creek Estates development were nearest the path and had the most widespread damage. The tornado lifted as it passed over Pleasant Hill Road. More than half of its two mile path length was through wooded areas and this reduced the damage that was done. No injuries were reported.Two houses (one on Main Street and one on Pleasant Hill Road) lost sections of their roofs. The house on Pleasant Hill Road also had its front door knocked out and its garage crushed by a fallen tree. The tornado tore out an entire section of a second story wall from a house on Cornerstone Drive and embedded its siding into the ground and and sides of other homes. About an additional 30 houses mainly on the east side of Cornerstone Drive suffered minor to moderate damage as the tornado leveled sheds, tossed playhouses and swing sets and ripped siding and shingles. Storage sheds were seen bouncing through backyards. Numerous trees, including fruit trees, evergreens and maples were either snapped or uprooted. Traffic signs were ravaged and twisted. About 700 customers throughout the county lost power because of the tornado, severe thunderstorms and lightning strikes. They were concentrated in Blandon, Kutztown, Richmond Township and Wyomissing. There were also at least five separate reports of small hail with the line of thunderstorms.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

7 minutes of warning. NWS PHI issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:26 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:57 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.

Reading/Spaatz Field (RDG), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 136 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:35 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.