Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 2010
EF0 tornado, Kinzers to Vintage, Pennsylvania, September 27, 2010
From Kinzers to Vintage, this EF0 tornado ran 1.8 miles across Lancaster County on September 27, 2010, touching down at 3:10 PM EDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $15,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF0
- Date
- September 27, 2010
- Touchdown
- 3:10 PM EDT (19:10 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:13 PM EDT (19:13 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 1.8 miles (3.0 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 1
- Property damage
- $15,000
- County
- Lancaster County
- Touchdown point
- 39.983, -76.071
- Lift-off point
- 40.009, -76.080
- Record number
- 1009271310-01
What the Weather Service recorded
An EF0 tornado was confirmed in Paradise Township, Lancaster County with estimated maximum winds of 85 mph.
A weak and very brief EF0 tornado tracked rapidly north along Vintage Road between Route 741 and 30. The tornado lasted approximately 3 to 4 minutes and produced sporadic damage with estimated maximum winds of 85 mph. The damage path was between 20 and 30 yards wide. Several farm buildings sustained significant damage and multiple trees were snapped-off. A commercial roof-top AC unit was overturned and crop damage was visible in nearby corn fields. The area was surveyed by employees from the National Weather Service in State College and Lancaster County Emergency Management. There was one minor injury to a farmer who was inside one of the farm buildings at the time the tornado moved through the area.
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:03 UTC | 23:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | CTP |
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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:24 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 air that afternoon
The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.
Phillips Aaf/Abe, MD (KAPG), 12:00Z
7.2 hours before the tornado, 59 km from the path. September 27, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 44 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -20 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 18 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 485 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 402 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 473 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
The surface observations
Coatesville (MQS), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:20 UTC | 68 | 68 | 100° 9 kt | 15 | 1014.2 | FG |
| 17:40 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 100° 7 kt | 15 | 1013.9 | BR |
| 18:00 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 110° 7 kt | 1013.5 | BR | |
| 18:20 UTC | 71.6 | 71.6 | 110° 8 kt | 14 | 1012.9 | BR |
| 18:40 UTC | 71.6 | 71.6 | 110° 8 kt | 1012.9 | BR | |
| 19:00 UTC | 71.6 | 71.6 | 120° 7 kt | 1012.5 | RA | |
| 19:20 UTC | 71.6 | 71.6 | 130° 8 kt | 1012.5 | +RA | |
| 19:40 UTC | 71.6 | 71.6 | 150° 8 kt | 26 | 1012.2 | -DZ |
| 20:00 UTC | 71.6 | 71.6 | 140° 6 kt | 14 | 1012.2 | BR |
| 20:20 UTC | 71.6 | 71.6 | 140° 8 kt | 1012.2 | BR | |
| 20:40 UTC | 71.6 | 71.6 | 130° 6 kt | 1012.2 | BR | |
| 21:00 UTC | 71.6 | 71.6 | 140° 8 kt | 1012.2 | BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Dover AFB radar (KDOX), 141 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:10 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ne Oxford | Chester, PA | TREES DOWN IN LOWER OXFORD TOWNSHIP. |
| 19:00 UTC | TORNADO 0 | New London Twp | Chester, PA | AN EF-0 TORNADO WAS CONFIRMED NEAR NEW LONDON TOWNSHIP IN CHESTER COUNTY. |
| 19:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 E Paradise | Lancaster, PA | KIZNER FIRE DEPT REPORTED TREES DOWN AND PARTIAL DAMAGE TO A BARN ROOF NEAR VINTAGE. DAMAGE MAY HAVE BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH A WEAK BRIEF LOW-TOPPED TORNADO. |
| 19:10 UTC | TORNADO | 2 E Paradise | Lancaster, PA | EFO TORNADO CONFIRMED IN PARADISE TWP IN LANCASTER COUNTY. MAXIMUM WIND SPEED ESTIMATED AT 85 MPH. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of September 27, 2010
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 27 | 2:40 PM EDT | EF0 | Northampton, VA | 0.5 | 30 | 1 | $20,000 | |
| September 27 | 3:00 PM EDT | EF0 | Chester, PA | 1.4 | 100 | $25,000 | ||
| September 27 | 6:34 PM EDT | EF0 | Laurens, GA | 0.1 | 50 | $15,000 | ||
| September 27 | 11:09 PM EDT | EF1 | Burke, NC | 2.6 | 75 | $400,000 |
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.