EF1 tornado, Highland, Pennsylvania, July 26, 2012

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

July 26, 2012

Touchdown

5:44 PM EDT (21:44 UTC)

Lifted

5:45 PM EDT (21:45 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Luzerne County

Touchdown point

41.010, -75.900

Lift-off point

41.010, -75.890

Record number

1207261544-01

On the afternoon of July 26th, a significant severe weather event impacted portions of the Binghamton, NY forecast area. By the late morning/early afternoon, a warm front had lifted north through the region placing much of the Binghamton forecast area in a moderately unstable airmass. Aloft, multiple approaching upper-level shortwave troughs approached the region from the central Great Lakes during the early afternoon hours which provided the initial forcing for thunderstorm development. Also, a punch of mid-level dry air helped create mid-level convective instability along with a favorable setup for strong damaging winds.

A supercell thunderstorm moved into southern Luzerne county at approximately 5:05 PM EDT from east-central Columbia county. As the storm entered the county, doppler radar indicated a tight cyclonic circulation contained within the storm's mid-levels. As the storm traveled east, numerous trees were downed or uprooted just south of Sybertsville in the township of Sugerloaf. Reports from local Emergency Management Officials indicate that all tree damage in this location was oriented in the same direction, consistent with straight line wind damage. As the storm traveled east, extensive tree damage occurred in Butler Township along east Foothills Drive, immediately east of Route 309. Again, downed trees were oriented all in the same direction, consistent with straight line wind damage with winds estimated between 90-100 mph. The storm then continued east where extensive damage occurred along main street just south of Freeland in western Foster Township. At this location, an outside storage building was destroyed. Debris from the building then traveled through the air and penetrated in several locations the roof of a 58 foot tall building. After hitting and destroying the building, additional damage occurred directly to the northeast where several trees were downed or uprooted. Downed trees were convergent in nature, consistent with a tornadic circulation moving over the area.

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

38 minutes of warning. NWS BGM issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:06 UTC, 38 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:17 UTC and running to 22:48 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 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), 132 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:45 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 2012 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.