Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 2007

EF1 tornado, Woodward, Pennsylvania, August 7, 2007

This EF1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Centre County on August 7, 2007, touching down at 10:25 PM EDT and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

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

  1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

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

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

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

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

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

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF1
Date
August 7, 2007
Touchdown
10:25 PM EDT (02:25 UTC)
Lifted
10:30 PM EDT (02:30 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
400 yards (366 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Centre County
Touchdown point
40.920, -77.323
Lift-off point
40.889, -77.315
Record number
0708072025-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A large thunderstorm complex /MCS/ produced isolated wind damage and torrential rainfall across western and central Pennsylvania during the late evening and early overnight hours. An individual cell embedded within the convective system produced an EF1 tornado in eastern Centre county. This event continued into the early morning hours on August 8, 2007.

EF1 tornado confirmed near Woodward in eastern Centre county. Peak winds estimated between 85-95mph. Two homes and one cabin sustained minor damage. Approximately 200 trees were either uprooted or significantly damaged.

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

The warnings

20 minutes of warning. NWS CTP issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:05 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
01:44 UTC02:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCTP
02:05 UTC02:30 UTCTornado 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Phillips Aaf/Abe, MD (KAPG), 12:00Z

9.6 hours after it, 190 km from the path. August 8, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Phillips Aaf/Abe, MD at 12:00Z on 2007-08-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2521 joules per kilogram, CIN -54, lifted condensation level 1067 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, Phillips Aaf/Abe, MD at 12:00Z on 2007-08-08The 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 131 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
2521 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-54 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3007 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1067 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
157 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.4
Supercell composite
8.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The State College radar (KCCX), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:26 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
02:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Sw RenovoClinton, PATREES DOWN ALONG ROUTE 120 NEAR SHINTOWN.
02:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 W Laurelton CenterUnion, PATREES DOWN ALONG UNION/CENTRE COUNTY LINE.
02:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG7 E MillheimCentre, PANUMEROUS TREES DOWN ACROSS ROUTE 45 IN THE VICINITY OF WOODWARD.
02:25 UTCTORNADO7 E MillheimCentre, PAEF1 TORNADO CONFIRMED NEAR WOODWARD IN EASTERN CENTRE COUNTY. PEAK WINDS ESTIMATED BTWN 85-95MPH. TWO HOMES AND ONE CABIN SUSTAINED MINOR DAMAGE. APPROX 200 TREES WERE EITHER UPROOTED OR SIGNIFICANTLY DAMAGED.
03:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGLock HavenClinton, PATREES DOWN ON WATER STREET

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

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.