Did another tornado hit far Upper Bucks County? We should know on Tuesday

Jo Ciavaglia, Bucks County Courier Times
Updated ·3 min read

Far northern Bucks County communities are among the areas where storm survey teams will visit Tuesday to determine if damage there was the result of a tornado or straight line winds,

The storm damage in Bucks County appears to focus on a small sliver north of Coopersburg on the Lehigh Valley border, according to meteorologist Eric Hoeflich with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, New Jersey. The Allentown and Bethlehem areas have reported the majority of storm damage from Monday, he added.

The National Weather Service in Mount Holly is surveying damage in the Allentown and Bethlehem areas as well as far northern Bucks following severe thunderstorms hit the area on Monday Aug. 7, 2023.
The National Weather Service in Mount Holly is surveying damage in the Allentown and Bethlehem areas as well as far northern Bucks following severe thunderstorms hit the area on Monday Aug. 7, 2023.

A tornado that ripped through Wrightstown to Newtown Township on April 1 has been the only confirmed tornado so far this year in Bucks County, Hoeflich said.

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In Bucks County, Monday's storm damage was mainly tree damage and wires down, Hoeflich said. The survey teams should have the results of their field investigation available later Tuesday, he added.

As of Tuesday morning, PECO reported 30 outages affecting 420 customers in Bucks County with the largest numbers in Bristol Township and Newtown Township. Another 182 outages were reported in Montgomery County affecting a little more than 4,000 customers.

PPL Electric Utilities reported early Tuesday afternoon more than 17,000 customers are impacted by outages in the Allentown area, including 548 customers in the Quakertown, Sellersville in Bucks and Pennsburg in Montgomery County.

Bucks County and other parts of the region were hit with severe thunderstorms with heavy winds and rain between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Monday.

Bucks County and Montgomery County were under a severe thunderstorm warning for much of the evening, but all tornado watches and warnings had expired for the region as of 7 p.m. The National Weather Service warned of winds of up to 70 mph Monday night.

There were reports of wires down in Upper Makefield and Bensalem shortly before 7:30 p.m. as winds and rain picked up in the county. Washington Crossing Road in Upper Makefield, where a flash flood claimed lives last month, was being monitored throughout the night, officials said.

The storms Monday postponed a Phillies game at Citizens Bank Park; the team will play a double-header Tuesday night.

The next chance of strong thunderstorms in the region is Thursday, though its not anticipated to be as powerful as Monday's storms, Hoeflich said.

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This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Tornado survey teams head to Upper Bucks County after severe storms