Social Media Buzzes Over Radar Indicated Tornado In Doylestown

DOYLESTOWN, PA ? Social media was buzzing Thursday night after an online weather site reported that a quick-hitting line of heavy rain associated with a frontal passage may have spun off a small tornado in the Doylestown area.

PA Weather Plus, which calls itself the number one top trusted source for weather in Pennsylvania, sent out a social media post around 7 p.m. saying, ?POSSIBLE TORNADO: Based on the radar, we might?ve just had a brief weak tornado touchdown just E to NE of Doylestown. Let me know if you were impacted!?

They followed that post a few minutes later with this: ?POTENTIAL TORNADO. There was a debris ball signature on the radar between 7-7:30 p.m. just outside of Doylestown in Bucks County. If you report any storm damage, feel free to share and report it to NWS Mt Holly. It is quite possible a brief, weak tornado occurred within the squall line this evening given the radar signature.?

The meteorologists accompanied the posting with a graphic highlighting a path stretching from roughly south Main Street in Doylestown Borough northeast along the Route 202 Bypass into Buckingham and toward New Jersey.

The postings drew more than 1,000 reactions and more than 120 comments from some people reporting just heavy rain with the passage of the squall line to one person in Forest Grove commenting, ?I thought my roof was coming off.?

One person wrote, ?I drove through it!! Definitely happened. It was a really small spot, but it got scary out!!?

Another wrote, ?I texted my husband. Where are you? It sounds like the roof is gonna come off.?

Another posted, ?I just drove through the area and only noticed a small burst of very heavy rain near Peddler?s Village.?

When one person commented, ?No, it was straight line winds with the frontal boundary,? PA Weather responded, ?A debris signature this isolated and correlated with a weak couplet isn't going to be the result of straight line winds. This was a weak tornado. Not to mention the vertical continuity in the debris signature. Straight line wind isn't going to loft debris like this.?

One person commented, ?The sky was eerie like it used to be in ky/tn/ga when we lived there a couple of years ago. I made a comment about it, but brushed it off. It def had that feel to it. Glad no one was hurt.?

Others were skeptical, with one calling it a scam and another accusing the meteorologists of ?scaring your readers.?

?There weren?t any reports of tornadoes or cells in Doylestown this evening,? one person wrote. ?Stop scaring your readers. We?ve had straight line winds, yes, but no rotation or cells to indicate tornadic activity.?

There were no police reports of any damage in the Doylestown area and no reports of any injuries.

The frontal passage is ushering in much colder air, with a wind advisory issued for the area today. Strong winds are expected between 10 a.m. this morning and 12 a.m. Saturday morning.