Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 2011
EF1 tornado, Wertzville to Goodhope, Pennsylvania, May 26, 2011
From Wertzville to Goodhope, this EF1 tornado ran 2.6 miles across Cumberland County on May 26, 2011, touching down at 7:10 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $15,000 of property damage.
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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- May 26, 2011
- Touchdown
- 7:10 PM EDT (23:10 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:14 PM EDT (23:14 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 2.6 miles (4.2 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $15,000
- County
- Cumberland County
- Touchdown point
- 40.255, -77.036
- Lift-off point
- 40.282, -77.001
- Record number
- 1105261710-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A significant severe weather outbreak occurred across central Pennsylvania during the afternoon and evening hours on 26 May 2011. A total of 6 tornadoes were confirmed ranging from EF0-EF2 in magnitude with multiple reports of large hail and damaging thunderstorm winds. Flash flooding was also reported with Franklin County with these storms.
A NWS survey team confirmed a tornado in Cumberland County north of Hogestown as a result from the storms of May 26th. The tornado touched down near Route 144 south of Willow Mill Park around 710 pm EDT and traveled northeast for about 2.5 miles...occasionally lifting off the ground during it's lifetime. The tornado crossed Interstate 81, before ending near Sears Run before reaching Route 944. The tornado mainly resulted in about 100 trees being uprooted or snapped. Many of the trees were oaks and other hardwoods. Some minor damage to homes was also observed, mainly from the falling trees. A small outbuilding was severely damaged along Lambs Gap Road near the end of the tornado path. There were no injuries or fatalities.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The forecast that day
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 19:57 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 surface observations
Harrisburg/Capital (CXY), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The State College radar (KCCX), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:11 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 2011 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 26, 2011
14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 26 | 1:00 AM CDT | EF0 | DeKalb, TN | 1.9 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| May 26 | 3:23 PM CDT | EF0 | Jackson, MS | 2.9 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| May 26 | 4:35 PM EDT | EF0 | Ashtabula, OH | 1.2 | 100 | $200,000 | ||
| May 26 | 4:40 PM EDT | EF1 | Crawford, PA | 6.6 | 100 | $150,000 | ||
| May 26 | 4:40 PM CDT | EF3 | Saint Tammany Parish, LA | 6.1 | 150 | 4 | $400,000 | |
| May 26 | 6:10 PM EDT | EF1 | Franklin, PA | 0.1 | 25 | $10,000 | ||
| May 26 | 7:00 PM EDT | EF1 | Bradford, PA | 0.4 | 75 | $20,000 | ||
| May 26 | 7:20 PM EDT | EF1 | Dauphin, PA | 2.6 | 100 | $150,000 | ||
| May 26 | 7:25 PM EDT | EF1 | Lycoming, PA | 5.6 | 150 | $8,000 | ||
| May 26 | 7:26 PM EDT | EF1 | Lycoming, PA | 2.0 | 100 | $6,000 | ||
| May 26 | 7:38 PM EDT | EF0 | Mercer, OH | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| May 26 | 8:05 PM EDT | EF0 | Darke, OH | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| May 26 | 8:20 PM EDT | EF1 | Schuylkill, PA | 17.0 | 200 | $250,000 | ||
| May 26 | 9:52 PM EDT | EF0 | York, SC | 0.8 | 100 |
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.