EF0 tornado, Trainer to Chester, Pennsylvania, August 22, 2010

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

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

6. EF5over 200 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

EF0

Date

August 22, 2010

Touchdown

3:44 PM EDT (19:44 UTC)

Lifted

3:45 PM EDT (19:45 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

80 yards (73 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Delaware County

Touchdown point

39.836, -75.385

Lift-off point

39.835, -75.379

Record number

1008221344-01

A line of showers and thunderstorms moved through southeastern Pennsylvania on the afternoon of the 22nd. A tornado formed along this line in Delaware County.

An EF-0 tornado touched down in Chester City on the afternoon of the 22nd. The first wind damage occurred near the intersection of 4th and Engle Streets where a couple of trees and a garage was blown down. A nearly continuous path of tree damage then occurred to the 2000 block of Third Street where several trees were blown down and structural damage occurred to a building and its roof. Additional damage occurred in a continuous path to the intersection of Pennsylvania State Route 291 and Reaney Street where a house incurred siding and roof damage. The tornado then lifted as it approached the Commodore Barry Bridge where planks were ripped off the new Interstate 95 ramp being constructed. The path length of the tornado was approximately 0.33 miles and its maximum path width was 80 yards. The estimated maximum wind speed was 75 mph. No injuries were reported.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS PHI issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:44 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:25 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 Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:45 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

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.