Tornado watch for entire Philly region until 10 p.m. Thursday
The watch covers all of southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The government’s Storm Prediction Center has issued a tornado watch for most of southeastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey, and Delaware through 10 p.m. Thursday.
A front approaching the region is expected to set off strong storms starting around 5 p.m., with the threat continuing into the evening.
“We anticipate some of these storms will have the potential to become severe and there is a risk that some of the storms will have the potential to produce tornadoes,” said the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly.
The weather service said the primary overall threat from the storms would be damaging wind gusts approaching 60 mph.
Severe storms developed southwest of the region late Thursday, and a tornado warning was issued for the Baltimore area, and a severe-thunderstorm warning went up later for the Maryland eastern shore.
Nothing has been sighted yet around here.
The storm center, in Norman, Okla., issues generalized tornado watches when it appears that the atmosphere is ripe for twister to form.
Actual warnings are issued by local weather service offices when tornado signatures are detective on radar.
Six tornadoes touched down in the region during Tropical Storm Isias’ passage last month. Delaware saw three tornadoes in a one-week period; the state’s annual average is three.
This story will be updated.