F1 tornado, Kimbles to Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, December 1, 2006

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

December 1, 2006

Touchdown

5:35 PM EST (22:35 UTC)

Path length

5.0 miles (8.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Pike County

Touchdown point

41.470, -75.050

Lift-off point

41.480, -75.000

Record number

1066

A persistent ridge of high pressure brought unseasonably mild temperatures to the northeast U.S. A sharp cold front formed a line of strong to severe thunderstorms which blew through Pennsylvania Friday afternoon. Winds from these thunderstorms knocked down numerous trees and power lines. Along with the severe thunderstorms, three tornadoes touched down in northeast Pennsylvania, the first occurrence of tornado touch downs in Pennsylvania during the month of December on record.

At 5:26 pm, a tornado touched down about 3 miles East Northeast of Hawley. The tornado tracked east at about 65 mph with a maximum width of about 100 yards. The tornado had a path length of 5 miles as it lifted near Bohemia close to Route 590 at5:35 pm. The tornado knocked down scattered large trees along its path and was rated as an F0 on the Fujita with maximum winds between 50 and 70 mph.

A tornado touched down at 5:35 pm and tracked east at 65 mph through Lackawaxen at about 5:40 pm where it lifted. The tornado path length was about 5 miles with a maximum width of 200 yards. The tornado was rated an F1 on the Fujita scale. The tornado flattened a 200 yard wide area of trees at the base of a hill near the Lackawaxen River, about 1 mile upstream from the confluence of the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers. There were several other locations along the 5 mile path where numerous large trees were uprooted.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS BGM issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:32 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 16:56 UTC and running to 23:20 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:50 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 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.

Monticello (MSV), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Binghamton radar (KBGM), 113 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:35 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.