Alert archive / Pennsylvania / Tornado Warnings in 2001
Tornado Warning 2, NWS Pittsburgh, PA
NWS Pittsburgh, PA issued this tornado warning at Apr 9, 2001, 3:02 PM EDT for Butler County, Pennsylvania. It was in force for 43 min. 4 reports came from inside the area while it was in force.
The area
The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.
The facts
- Issued
- Apr 9, 2001, 3:02 PM EDT (19:02 UTC)
- Expired
- Apr 9, 2001, 3:45 PM EDT
- In force
- 43 min
- Issued by
- NWS Pittsburgh, PA
- Area
- Whole counties
County Butler County, PA
The radar
The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 49 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:04 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.
Open the radar archive at this moment
The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.
What was reported inside it
| Time | Report | Where | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 9, 3:12 PM EDT | Hail 1.75 | Slippery Rock, PA | |
| Apr 9, 3:22 PM EDT | Hail 1.75 | West Sunbury, PA | |
| Apr 9, 3:30 PM EDT | Tornado F0 | Prospect, PA | A weak F0 tornado with maximum winds estimated at 70 MPH touched down over northern Butler County just northeast of the town of Prospect. Shortly after the tornado touched down it blew the roof from a mobile home and shifted the mobile home three feet from it |
| Apr 9, 3:33 PM EDT | Hail 1 | Chicora, PA |
NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.
The watch it was issued in
The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.
| Issued | Product | Office | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 9, 11:00 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), launched 12:00Z, 7.0 hours before the alert went out and 58 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 841 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -45 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1013 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 139 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 106 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.5
- Supercell composite
- 2.8
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
000 WFUS51 KPBZ 091903 TORPIT PAC019-091945- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE PITTSBURGH PA 302 PM EDT MON APR 9 2001 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PITTSBURGH HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... BUTLER COUNTY IN PENNSYLVANIA * UNTIL 345 PM EDT * AT 302 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO 5 MILES SOUTHWEST OF SLIPPERY ROCK...MOVING EAST AT 45 MPH. * THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE... 5 MILES NORTH OF SHANOR-NORTHVUE AT 310 PM... OVER CHICORA AT 320 PM... THE SAFEST PLACE TO BE DURING A TORNADO IS IN A BASEMENT. GET UNDER A WORKBENCH OR OTHER PIECE OF STURDY FURNITURE. IF NO BASEMENT IS AVAILABLE...SEEK SHELTER ON THE LOWEST FLOOR OF THE BUILDING IN AN INTERIOR HALLWAY OR ROOM SUCH AS A CLOSET. EVACUATE MOBILE HOMES AND GET INSIDE A SUBSTANTIAL SHELTER.
The office that day
Everything else NWS Pittsburgh, PA issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 9, 2:58 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Washington | 47 min |
| Apr 9, 12:57 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Mercer | 63 min |
| Apr 9, 1:45 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Venango | 60 min |
| Apr 9, 1:52 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Forest | 53 min |
| Apr 9, 2:30 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Lawrence | 60 min |
| Apr 9, 2:45 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | PBZ | Lawrence | 45 min |
| Apr 9, 3:32 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Armstrong | 58 min |
| Apr 9, 4:01 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Beaver | 59 min |
| Apr 9, 4:04 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Jefferson | 56 min |
| Apr 9, 4:07 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Indiana | 53 min |
| Apr 9, 4:10 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Mercer | 65 min |
| Apr 9, 4:18 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Butler | 57 min |
| Apr 9, 4:45 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Allegheny, Armstrong, Westmoreland | 60 min |
| Apr 9, 4:55 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Washington | 65 min |
| Apr 9, 5:52 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Fayette | 53 min |
| Apr 9, 6:03 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Washington | 57 min |
| Apr 9, 6:15 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Greene | 60 min |
| Apr 9, 7:17 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ | Greene | 58 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Pennsylvania, 2001Every tornado warning in 2001Tornadoes in 2001
Sources
The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.