EF0 tornado, Flortenia to East Honesdale, Pennsylvania, July 29, 2011

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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.

Rating

EF0

Date

July 29, 2011

Touchdown

4:48 PM EDT (20:48 UTC)

Lifted

4:50 PM EDT (20:50 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Wayne County

Touchdown point

41.562, -75.264

Lift-off point

41.559, -75.254

Record number

1107291448-01

As a cold front approached northeast Pennsylvania, scattered showers and thunderstorms developed in the moist and unstable airmass ahead of the boundary. Some of the thunderstorms became severe, with one storm producing two tornado touchdowns, and other damage from severe micro-burst winds.

A tornado touched down near West Locust Avenue and Route 6 just west of Honesdale. The primary damage was to numerous trees which were uprooted and snapped. One home was damaged and a shed was destroyed by falling trees. Minor damage to other homes and buildings occurred, such as shingles blown off and objects tossed. Trees and debris were in a very convergent pattern, indicative of a tornado. Some of the shingles were found on the upwind side of the storm. The tornado moved southeast across the Lackawaxen River and weakened as it moved up the hill on the other side.

A second tornado touched down occurred from the same storm. An area of damage was surveyed near the Honesdale high school and middle school. This tornado was a bit smaller and weaker than the first. Some shingles were blown off a roof of a home and damaged some trim on another home. A couple dozen trees were snapped and uprooted along the path. Insulation from the roof of the middle school, which was under construction, was strewn to the north and northeast of the path.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS BGM issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:36 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:03 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:40 UTC and running to 21:03 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 19:59 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), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:49 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 2011 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.