F1 tornado, Pottsville to Tamaqua, Pennsylvania, May 11, 1996

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F1

Date

May 11, 1996

Touchdown

3:30 PM EDT (19:30 UTC)

Path length

10.0 miles (16.1 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Schuylkill County

Touchdown point

40.720, -76.120

Lift-off point

40.780, -75.950

Record number

879

An F1 tornado (73-112 mph) moved northeast across small towns to the northeast of Pottsville causing damage along a 10 mile path from near New Philadelphia through Brockton and Mary-D before ending at Rabiit Run Reservoir just south of Tamaqua. Damage occurred along two separate 5 mile segments of the path, running parallel to route 209 from New Philadelphia to just south of Tuscarora on the north side of Sharp Mountain, and from south of Tuscarora to a mile south of Tamaqua on the south side of the mountain.Most of the damage was to trees. A roof was blown off a home, tiles were removed from a church roof and some siding was torn from a home in Brockton. A tree fell lengthwise completely demolishing one trailer, and another tree split a second mobile home in two in Mary-D. Heaviest damage was at Rabbit Run Reservoir where tree tops were torn off. Fishermen had their cars buried under the debris, but were unhurt.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

13 minutes of warning. NWS CTP issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:17 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:00 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:50 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The Binghamton radar (KBGM), 161 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:27 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.