Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 2013
EF1 tornado, Linden Hall, Pennsylvania, June 27, 2013
This EF1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Centre County on June 27, 2013, touching down at 4:05 PM EDT and reaching 75 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.
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
- June 27, 2013
- Touchdown
- 4:05 PM EDT (20:05 UTC)
- Lifted
- 4:07 PM EDT (20:07 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
- Path width
- 75 yards (69 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Centre County
- Touchdown point
- 40.781, -77.740
- Lift-off point
- 40.793, -77.752
- Record number
- 1306271405-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A MCV and broader mid-level trough crossed the central Appalachians and triggered strong to severe thunderstorms from the central ridges into the Susquehanna River Valley during the afternoon and evening. Very high boundary layer moisture and humidity contributed to heavy rainfall/flash flooding and precipitation loading within consolidating convection. While the deep layer flow and shear were somewhat modest, ambient vertical vorticity just ahead of the MCV and low LCLs aided in the development of two weak, short-lived (EF1) tornadoes in Centre and Perry Counties. Deep moisture (PWAT) values around two inches along with relatively slow, south-to-north training cells and bands produced significant flash flooding, particularly in DuBois and Beech Creek which sustained extensive flood damages due localized 4-6+ inch rainfall amounts. Both towns were declared a State of Emergency. The Bald Eagle Creek at Beech Creek Station surged nearly 8 feet in 4 hours and crested just below major flood stage. The creek officially crested at 13.75 feet which was the sixth highest crest on record. An 86-year old man was swept away and killed by the rising flood waters in Beech Creek.
An EF1 tornado was confirmed just east of Boalsburg on Nittany Farm between US 322 (General Potter Highway) and Route 45 (Earlystown Road). The maximum wind speed was 100 mph. Eyewitnesses said the tornado pulled a small tree in a holding pond about 50 feet in the air. Visible damages included sporadic trees snapped/knocked down and metal roofing off of several outbuildings and corn crib. The last observed damage was near Cedar Run road or about 1 mile to the northwest from the initial touchdown. There were no injuries or deaths.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13:45 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | CTP |
| 19:55 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Flood Advisory | CTP |
| 20:20 UTC | 21:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP |
| 20:42 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Flood Warning | CTP |
| 21:01 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP |
| 21:17 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP |
| 21:40 UTC | 06:45 UTC | Flood Warning | CTP |
| 21:50 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | CTP |
| 22:09 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | CTP |
| 23:15 UTC | 05:15 UTC | Flood Warning | CTP |
| 23:43 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Flood Warning | CTP |
| 00:08 UTC | 03:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | CTP |
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 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 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
8.1 hours before the tornado, 203 km from the path. June 27, 2013.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 290 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -36 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 994 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 714 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 3 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 10 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 66 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
The radar
The State College radar (KCCX), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:04 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:20 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Sw Blain | Perry, PA | |
| 18:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Blain | Perry, PA | TREES AND WIRES DOWN |
| 20:05 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Se Linden Hall | Centre, PA | *** 280 INJ *** |
| 20:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 E Boalsburg | Centre, PA | TREES REPORTED DOWN JUST OFF OF ROUTE 45. |
| 20:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Ene Petersburg | Huntingdon, PA | TREES DOWN OVER ROADS |
| 20:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Pine Grove Mills | Centre, PA | TREES DOWN ON PINE GROVE MTN. |
| 20:50 UTC | FLOOD | Pine Grove Mills | Centre, PA | FLOODING REPORTED ON ROUTE 45. |
| 20:50 UTC | FLOOD | State College | Centre, PA | FLOODING REPORTED ON PARK AVE. |
| 20:55 UTC | FLOOD | State College | Centre, PA | FLOODING REPORTED ON ATHERTON ST. |
| 21:00 UTC | FLOOD | 2 Nw Whipple Dam State | Huntingdon, PA | ROADS CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING |
| 21:00 UTC | FLOOD | Mcalevys Fort | Huntingdon, PA | ROADS CLOSED DUE TO FLOODING |
| 21:00 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Honey Grove | Juniata, PA | RTE 75 CLOSED NEAR HONEY GROVE FOR TWO HOURS 5PM-7PM |
| 21:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Jacksonville | Centre, PA | TREES DOWN ALONG ROUTE 26. |
| 21:20 UTC | FLOOD | State College | Centre, PA | FLOODING REPORTED ALONG A PORTION OF COLLEGE AVE. |
| 21:45 UTC | FLOOD | State College | Centre, PA | FLOODING ALONG WESTERLY PARKWAY. |
| 21:55 UTC | FLOOD | Pine Grove Mills | Centre, PA | STREAMS REPORTED TO BE OUT OF THEIR BANKS NEAR PINE GROVE MILLS. |
| 22:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 S Beech Creek | Centre, PA | TREES DOWN ALONG I-80. |
| 22:30 UTC | FLOOD | Jacksonville | Centre, PA | WATER REPORTED TO BE ACROSS ROADWAYS IN MUCH OF MARION TWP. |
| 22:40 UTC | FLOOD | Beech Creek | Clinton, PA | VEHICLES REPORTED TO BE STRANDED IN WATER ALONG ROUTE 150. |
| 22:45 UTC | FLOOD | Howard | Centre, PA | PERSONS TRAPPED INSIDE A BUILDING DUE TO HIGH WATER. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 27, 2013
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 27 | 2:19 PM EDT | EF1 | Perry, PA | 3.0 | 50 | $3,000 |
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.