Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 2002

F1 tornado, Pittsfield, Pennsylvania, July 28, 2002

This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Warren County on July 28, 2002, touching down at 12:30 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
July 28, 2002
Touchdown
12:30 PM EDT (16:30 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$40,000
County
Warren County
Touchdown point
41.830, -79.400
Lift-off point
41.880, -79.400
Record number
185

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down in Warren County, just north of the town of Pittsfield, on the morning of July 28th, 2002. The tornado damaged 5 homes and knocked down approximately 100 trees. The tornado was 100 yards wide with a path of just over 3 miles long. Wind speeds were estimated to be around 100 mph, rating this tornado as an F1 on the Fujita Scale. The worst damage occurred near Brooks Rock Road north of Pittsfield. It was estimated that the tornado touched down around 12:30 p.m. local time, and remained on the ground for about 10 minutes.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:52 UTC18:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTP

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 15:48 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 air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Buffalo Intl Airport, NY (KBUF), 12:00Z

4.5 hours before the tornado, 133 km from the path. July 28, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Buffalo Intl Airport, NY at 12:00Z on 2002-07-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 171 joules per kilogram, CIN -265, lifted condensation level 1200 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Buffalo Intl Airport, NY at 12:00Z on 2002-07-28The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 86 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
171 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-265 J/kg
Surface CAPE
290 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1200 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Buffalo Intl Airport, NY (KBUF), 00:00Z

7.5 hours after it, 133 km from the path. July 29, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Buffalo Intl Airport, NY at 00:00Z on 2002-07-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2309 joules per kilogram, CIN -14, lifted condensation level 652 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Buffalo Intl Airport, NY at 00:00Z on 2002-07-29The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 186 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2309 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-14 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2865 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
652 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
186 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
228 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.0
Supercell composite
11.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Jamestown (Awos) (JHW), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
14:47 UTC71.669.8340° 20 kt281014.9-RA FG
15:51 UTC69.866.2220° 4 kt1013.2
16:47 UTC7773.4220° 8 kt1012.9
17:50 UTC78.873.4240° 10 kt151013.2

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Buffalo radar (KBUF), 133 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:32 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 28, 2002

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 282:02 PM EDTF0Macomb, MI0.110
July 281:41 PM CDTF0Kingsbury, SD0.350
July 281:55 PM CDTF0Kingsbury, SD0.1100$10,000
July 282:07 PM CDTF0Brookings, SD1.050
July 286:40 PM EDTF1Onondaga, NY0.150$2.0 million
July 285:40 PM CDTF0Nicollet, MN0.550

What this means

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.

Sources

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