EF2 tornado, Belmont Corner to Greeley, Pennsylvania, July 23, 2010

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 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF2

Date

July 23, 2010

Touchdown

6:27 PM EDT (22:27 UTC)

Lifted

6:54 PM EDT (22:54 UTC)

On the ground

27 minutes

Path length

25.7 miles (41.4 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

Counties

Wayne and Pike counties

Touchdown point

41.670, -75.370

Lift-off point

41.440, -74.980

Record number

1007231627-01

A warm front lifted north into northeast Pennsylvania during the afternoon, putting the area into the warm and moist air mass of the warm sector, with temperatures in the mid 80s and dew points in the 70s. Showers and thunderstorms developed in the vicinity of the front in this unstable air mass. Stronger storms developed across southeast Susquehanna county, with one storm in particular developing strong rotation as it moved southeast into Wayne county. This storm went on to produce four tornadoes and other significant microburst damage as it continued southeast through Wayne and into Pike county.

This is the continuation of a tornado that began in Susquehanna county. As the tornado continued southeast, a considerable number of trees were destroyed as it moved up and down over hills. Several barns and outbuildings were damaged and one barn destroyed. Minor damage was observed to a dozen residences. The strongest part of the tornado path occurred where it mowed a path through trees crossing Pleasant Mount Drive and again near Belmont Turnpike and White Rock Drive to Creamton Drive (Route 247), and Creek Drive (Route 170) where the path hooks slightly to the left and ends east of Creek Drive. The tornado was a strong EF-1 with peak winds estimated between 90 and 105 mph. The tornado lifted about 5.5 miles northeast of Forrest City, PA.

The National Weather Service in Binghamton, NY confirmed a tornado north of Bethany in Wayne County Pennsylvania on July 23 2010. A second tornado briefly touched down about 3 miles northwest of Bethany at 6:15 pm and tracked 1.7 miles to the southeast, to just 1 mile north of Bethany. Damage was observed on Eroh Road east of Grass Pond Number Three. The damage was primarily to tree with a barn roof partially peeled. The tornado had peak winds estimated at 80 mph.

This was the third and most significant tornado from the storm that tracked across Wayne county. The damage path begins three miles northeast of Honesdale. Significant tree damage occurred. Trees fell on an attached garage on Torrey Road. Barn roofs were peeled. The tornado intensifies as it moved along Dunn Road. Trees are snapped, uprooted and thrown in what appears to be two separate paths through dense woods indicating mulit-vortex. Several structures had damage from fallen trees. A fence was pulled out of the ground and strewn in different directions. The greatest damage occurred about 4 miles east of Honesdale and 1.5 miles west of Beach Lake where Dunn Road meets Route 652. Several structures were severely damaged or destroyed including a triple-wide trailer, two barns, and a commercial auto transmission business on Route 652. Here, winds were estimated to peek in the 110 to 120 MPH range putting it at the lower end of an EF2.||The tornado continued to the southeast destroying trees on the west side of Williams Pond and Mud and Open Woods Ponds and then crossing into Pike County.

This tornado is believed to be a smaller spin-up tornado on the edge of a developing strong rear flank downburst from the storm. It occurs at the same time as the other more significant, long track tornado. A narrow concentrated path of damage through trees was observed. About two miles of damage occurred in Wayne County, all of which was to trees.

This is a continuation from a tornado that tracked southeast from Wayne county. Another two miles of damage from this tornado was observed in Pike County, crossing the north end of Tinkwig Lake. The majority of the damage seen was to trees, but large fallen trees damaged a few homes and destroyed one, cutting it in half. This was a heavily wooded residential area. Trees also took down power and telephone poles and lines. Winds with this tornado were estimated at 70 to 90 mph. While it is possible that the path is longer, it became very difficult to differentiate the damage from the tornado and the increasingly significant damage that occurred from downburst winds.

This is a continuation from a tornado that moved southeast from Wayne county into Pike county. The tornado moved past Wolf Lake, Teedyuskung Lake, and Fawn Lake still doing EF1 damage to trees. The path begins to narrow and oscillate between EF0 with little damage, to EF1 with trees snapped and uprooted. It crosses Route 590 (twice) and the Lackawaxen River east of Rowland and appears to dissipate over State Game Lands about 2 miles northeast of Greeley.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS BGM issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:07 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:02 UTC and running to 00:49 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 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.

The Binghamton radar (KBGM), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:26 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.

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 2010 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.