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Monthly Weather Review: Summer – September 2026

October 15, 2026
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Storm clouds over an open field. Visuals like this were common in the summer of 2026. Photo Credit: Heather Wilde via Unsplash

By Nicolas Storer Rios ’28

The weather over the past month and the summer has been very eventful for the Lancaster, Pennsylvania community. Although the name of this column is Monthly Weather Review, this article will take more of a focus on the events of the summer, because there was no Monthly Weather Review to cover those.

Over the summer, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania community has had many different days of severe thunderstorms, three different days with tornado warnings, damaging winds, and record-breaking heat.

Perhaps the most notable weather event that occurred over the summer was the 4th of July thunderstorm. According to the National Weather Service, winds reaching up to 85 miles per hour were determined to have happened in Manheim Township. Specifically, locations near Kissel Hill Road, Long Farm Road, Apple Road, and Ruth Ridge Drive had severe tree and property damage. In the general central Lancaster County area, there were multiple power outages and downed trees. In York County, a Disaster Emergency was declared that lasted through most of July due to the severity of the thunderstorms.

Also in York County about a month later, an EF2 tornado was confirmed to have hit Eastern York High School on August 20th. Part of the same storm system that led to a tornado warning for central Lancaster County, the EF2 tornado caused significant damage to the school’s auditorium and several classrooms, with roofs being completely ripped up. A little after that, a separate tornado occurred in Columbia, Lancaster County. The tornado impacted the downtown area at EF1 intensity and caused damage to walls of old masonry buildings.

An additional two tornadoes occurred very near each other just southeast of Mountville, though these were weak and short-lived. By tornado count, the day was one of the most prolific tornado events in our area’s recent history, and an EF2 tornado had not occurred in south-central Pennsylvania since 2019.

Aside from thunderstorms, the last week of June and the first of July featured blistering temperatures for most of Pennsylvania. Lancaster Airport, the main weather measurement site for Lancaster County, reported a maximum temperature of 103 on the second of July, which tied a day in July of 2011 for the highest temperature in Lancaster County since measurement began in 1999.

The weather has quieted down in September as fall and winter approach. Just a few days ago, the northeastern United States was impacted by a nor’easter that brought flooding and gusty conditions to the coasts of Delaware, New Jersey and New York. Impacts in our area were light.

The next Monthly Weather Review will be issued in early November, and will focus solely on the weather events and statistics of October.

Sources