A frontal boundary was draped NW to SE across central Pennsylvania on May 14, 2018, with southwestern Pennsylvania located in the warm sector. A broken line of storms developed over eh Pittsburgh area and progressed southeastward across Somerset County, producing spotty wind damage.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS CTP wrote it up.
A frontal boundary was draped NW to SE across central Pennsylvania on May 14, 2018, with southwestern Pennsylvania located in the warm sector. A broken line of storms developed over eh Pittsburgh area and progressed southeastward across Somerset County, producing spotty wind damage.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS State College, PA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 14, 11:30 AM EST, 1 hour 54 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service State College PA 1230 PM EDT Mon May 14 2018 .SYNOPSIS... A frontal boundary will remain over or just south of Pennsylvania all week. The front will keep the pattern unsettled with daily showers and thunderstorms. Some of the thunderstorms across the southern half of the state could strengthen enough to become severe late this afternoon, and again Tuesday afternoon and evening. && .NEAR TERM /THROUGH TONIGHT/... Atmosphere is noticeably warmer, more juicy and unstable across the western half of the CWA during the mid to late morning hours today compared to Sunday. SPC's mid morning Day 1 convective outlook expanded their Slight Risk area further north across the southern part of the Laurel highlands with the Enhanced Risk area just nipping SW Somerset County. Upstream MCS is just weakened briefly, but is now moving into the aforementioned increasingly unstable air across the western half of PA. SPC MCD just issued highlighting the high likelihood of a watch to be issued within the next hour. 0-1 km EHI off the SREF is very high with pockets of 3-4 M2/S2 late this afternoon and evening invof of the eroding llvl quasi-stnry boundary over scent PA, which would bring in an elevated chance of discrete supercell near, and just in advance of the regenerating larger-scale MCS. Will introduce chc of showers and elevated TSRA across the Mid Susq Valley and Ncent mtns. Max temps this afternoon will be in the 70s...to lower 80s in the south. Have chosen to keep the NE dry, but still allow for a weak SHRA across the central mtns. && .SHORT TERM /TUESDAY/... Ongoing storms will slink south once again for at least the first half of tonight. But before sunrise on Tuesday, some storms will storm into the west - esp over the NW. The warm air does seem to be slightly farther to the north after today, and this track makes sense. The seemingly never-ending chain of waves aloft rolling around the ROF will then send a second surge in later in the day, with a decent push of the northern (side of the front) air mass behind it. Some sunshine is also possible on Tues, and maybe more so than today/Mon. But, it is the forcing which looks to be stronger and the llvl temps already a little higher than this morning (less heating needed to break the cap). The timing appears to be rather solid over the last few mdl cycles and this bigger wave would kiss the peak heating and fire up storms Tues afternoon over the north central counties and then drop them southward as the flow aloft will become a little more north of west and the storms will feed on the higher PWATs/dewpoints/instability to the south. The SPC SLGT risk/svr is wider on Tues - covering just more than the srn half of the CWA. && .LONG TERM /TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY/... Pennsylvania will be sandwiched between a large upper level low moving across northern Canada and a low moving through the Gulf of Mexico. The resulting stationary boundary will drape across the region through the midweek period. This unsettled weather will keep increasing moisture/dewpoints and above average PWATS. This suggests a daily risk for showers and thunderstorms. Areas of locally heavy rainfall are possible, with the potential for multiple rounds of convection. The specific areas most likely to receive heavy rains will likely be somewhat difficult to pin down until the short term when models begin to resolve mesoscale/convective processes. The upper low moving across the northeastern Gulf of Mexico will supply additional moisture which is projected to advect northward toward the Mid Atlantic by Wednesday. The deep moisture plume interacting with the nearly stationary west- east frontal zone could set up the potential for organized moderate to heavy rainfall later this upcoming week. Temperatures should be above seasonal climate averages next week with a muggy summertime/humid feel given dewpoints in the 60s. && .AVIATION /16Z MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY/... Slow improvement will give way to predominantly VFR conditions as the afternoon wears on, with the pesky, persistent stationary front over southern PA lifting north as a warm front. Main focus for the afternoon will be the likelihood of a widespread/few hour round of TSRA and MVFR to IFR (with a brief period or two of strong/gusty west winds associated with TSRA outflow) across the southern half of PA, followed by a larger area of mdt to heavy...rear stratiform rain associated with the main convective complex for late today/this evening. Slowly lowering cigs and vsbys will occur in the wake of the showers and TSRA for the middle of tonight. Another round of poor flying conditions from shra/tsra possible late tonight/early Tuesday morning. Outlook... Tue...AM low cigs possible N Mtns. PM tsra impacts possible. Wed-Thu...Rain/low cigs possible, mainly southern Pa. Fri...Rain/low cigs likely. && .HYDROLOGY... Static pattern. Soils continue to get wetter as each days' storms yield stripes of 1+" rainfall. PWATs hang in the 35-40mm (1.5") range today and Tues before inching (pun) down to only an inch on Wed-Thurs. They ramp up and get even higher than today on Fri-Sat as a surge of tropical moisture flows in. The showers/storms today will be moving along quickly with the fast flow in mid-levels, but many will take the same path as the last few days. A wider swath of heavier rain is expected on Tues aftn/evening - but generally over areas which have received less rainfall than the SWrn third of the CWA. Adding this up, it seems like the chance for flash flooding is going to be higher on Tuesday across a larger part of the CWA, but is still low enough at this time to not post a flood watch. Chatting with neighboring offices yields very similar thoughts. && .CTP WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && SYNOPSIS...Lambert NEAR TERM...Lambert SHORT TERM...Dangelo LONG TERM...Ceru/Steinbugl AVIATION...Lambert HYDROLOGY...Lmabert
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service State College PA 1252 PM EDT Mon May 14 2018 PAZ024>028-033>036-056-063>065-151700- Cambria-Blair-Huntingdon-Mifflin-Juniata-Somerset-Bedford-Fulton- Franklin-Perry-Cumberland-Adams-York- 1252 PM EDT Mon May 14 2018 ...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 88 IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 PM EDT THIS EVENING... This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for central Pennsylvania. .DAY ONE...This Afternoon and Tonight. Please listen to NOAA Weather Radio or go to weather.gov/StateCollege on the internet for more information about the following hazards. Severe Thunderstorm Watch. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Tuesday through Sunday. Another round or two of strong to locally severe thunderstorms is expected Tuesday afternoon and evening. The main severe weather threat is in the form of localized damaging straight-line wind gusts and isolated instances of large hail, one inch in diameter or greater. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotters are encouraged to report significant hazardous weather. PAZ004>006-010-011-037-151700- Warren-McKean-Potter-Elk-Cameron-Tioga- 1252 PM EDT Mon May 14 2018 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for central Pennsylvania. .DAY ONE...This Afternoon and Tonight. The probability for widespread hazardous weather is low. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Tuesday through Sunday. The probability for widespread hazardous weather is low. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotters are encouraged to report significant hazardous weather. PAZ012-017>019-041-042-045-046-049>053-057>059-066-151700- Northern Clinton-Clearfield-Northern Centre-Southern Centre- Northern Lycoming-Sullivan-Southern Clinton-Southern Lycoming-Union- Snyder-Montour-Northumberland-Columbia-Dauphin-Schuylkill-Lebanon- Lancaster- 1252 PM EDT Mon May 14 2018 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for central Pennsylvania. .DAY ONE...This Afternoon and Tonight. A few strong thunderstorms containing brief winds and small hail are possible late this afternoon into early this evening. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Tuesday through Sunday. A round or two of strong to locally severe thunderstorms is expected Tuesday afternoon and evening. The main severe weather threat is in the form of localized damaging straight-line wind gusts and isolated instances of large hail, one inch in diameter or greater. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotters are encouraged to report significant hazardous weather.
The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 18:22 UTC.
1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A severe thunderstorm producing winds estimated near 60 mph knocked down a tree just east of the Seven Springs resort.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Pennsylvania in 2018Every state in 2018This day in weather historyWarnings in Pennsylvania, May 2018
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 745437.