EF-0 Tornado on September 4, 2025 in Collins, PA (Lancaster County)

Overview

At 9:31 PM on Sep 4, 2025 a single EF-0 tornado was on the ground for approximately 1 minute (0.15 miles) about 2 miles ESE of Quarryville in Lancaster County. The brief tornado spun up southeast of Collins, PA and lifted the roof off of a dugout at Solanco Youth Baseball Association. The tornado continued across Kirkwood Pike and caused crop damage in a field just north of Encounter Church. The tornado lifted before it encountered a wooded residential area northwest of Hideaway Drive. We would like to thank several students and alumni of the Millersville Meteorology program and meteorologists at WGAL for their assistance with relaying reports and sharing photos from the event.

A map view of the Collins tornado starting at a baseball field west of Kirkwood Pike and traveling through a field between Black Rock Rd and Hideaway Dr.

The tornado formed within a single cell thunderstorm showing low-end supercellular characteristics. As an upper level shortwave trough approached the Chesapeake region that evening, both low-level and deep-layer shear increased, with effective bulk shear increasing to 45 kts and sfc-500m SRH increasing to 200 m2/s2 for just a couple hours in an area confined to south central and southeastern PA. Lancaster county was at the nose of a strengthening 30 kt low level jet when the EF-0 tornado occurred. A HRRR model sounding for Harrisburg, PA valid at 01z Sep 5 showed that upwards of 95% of all parcels ingested from the 0-0.5km layer by a right moving supercell would contain streamwise vorticity. The sounding also depicts ~1000 J/kg of MLCAPE.

Aerial photograph of crop damage in a field between Black Rock Rd and Hideaway Drive. Photo credit: Jack Zwolinski, Anthony Haberman and Adam Daugherty.	Damage to a dugout beside a baseball field on Kirkwood Pike. Photo credit: Jack Zwolinski, Anthony Haberman and Adam Daugherty.	A HRRR model sounding for KMDT valid at 01z Sep 5 (9 PM EDT Sep 4)