Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 2014
EF0 tornado, Frogtown to Shannondale, Pennsylvania, June 18, 2014
From Frogtown to Shannondale, this EF0 tornado ran 4.6 miles across Clarion County on June 18, 2014, touching down at 8:49 PM EDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- June 18, 2014
- Touchdown
- 8:49 PM EDT (00:49 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:56 PM EDT (00:56 UTC)
- On the ground
- 7 minutes
- Path length
- 4.6 miles (7.4 km)
- Path width
- 150 yards (137 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $25,000
- County
- Clarion County
- Touchdown point
- 41.106, -79.299
- Lift-off point
- 41.076, -79.220
- Record number
- 1406181849-01
What the Weather Service recorded
An upper level disturbance moved along a stalled boundary across eastern Ohio, the northern West Virginia panhandle, and into western Pennsylvania producing numerous severe thunderstorms. An EF0 tornado also occurred over Clarion county.
An EF0 skipped along a path nearly 4.5 miles long with a maximum width of 150 yards near Limestone. The tornado had maximum winds of 80 MPH. The storm uprooted or snapped numerous hardwood trees, a barn was destroyed, and the roof of a 2nd story deck was removed.
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.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:01 UTC and running to 02:13 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13:46 UTC | 16:45 UTC | Flood Advisory | PBZ |
| 22:00 UTC | 12:49 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | PBZ |
| 23:01 UTC | 02:13 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | PBZ |
| 00:38 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ |
| 00:54 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | PBZ |
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 19:40 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.
Pittsburgh, PA (KAGC), 00:00Z
0.8 hours before the tornado, 104 km from the path. June 19, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1705 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -14 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 4023 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1355 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 13 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 91 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 132 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 6.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.8 K/km
Pittsburgh, PA (KAGC), 12:00Z
11.2 hours after it, 104 km from the path. June 19, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 163 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -6 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 357 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 563 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 24 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 108 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.5 K/km
The radar
The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:47 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:18 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Pleasantville | Venango, PA | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN |
| 23:20 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Pleasantville | Venango, PA | |
| 23:38 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Oil City | Venango, PA | |
| 00:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Barkeyville | Venango, PA | TREES DOWN ALONG I-80 NEAR MILE MARKER 28. TREES WERE NOT BLOCKING THE ROAD |
| 00:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Clintonville | Venango, PA | COUPLE OF TREES DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 00:12 UTC | FLOOD | 2 E Greenville | Armstrong, PA | REPORTS OF WATER FROM CREEKS OUT OF THEIR BANKS... ROADWAYS COVERED WITH WATER... SOME BASEMENT FLOODING. |
| 00:12 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 S Urey | Indiana, PA | |
| 00:29 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 S St. Petersburg | Clarion, PA | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN |
| 00:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Burnside | Clearfield, PA | TREES AND WIRES DOWN ON MAPLE STREET |
| 00:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Burnside | Clearfield, PA | TREES DOWN ON ROUTE 219. ROAD BLOCKED. |
| 00:38 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Sse Shamburg | Clarion, PA | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN |
| 00:49 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Ese Frogtown | Clarion, PA | EF0 TORNADO UPROOTED OR SNAPPED NUMEROUS HARDWOOD TREES. DAMAGE TO FASCIA WAS NOTED ON A FEW HOMES. A BARN WAS DESTROYED...AND THE ROOF OF A SECOND FLOOR DECK WAS REMOVED. A 6X6 POST WAS IMPALED INTO THE ROOF OF A HOME. |
| 00:52 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 W Shannondale | Clarion, PA | SEVERAL TREES UPROOTED ALONG PARADISE ROAD SOUTH OF TORNADO TRACK |
| 01:06 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Se South Bethlehem | Armstrong, PA | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN |
| 01:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Ene Worthville | Jefferson, PA | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN IN THE TOWN OF OLIVER |
| 01:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Brookville | Jefferson, PA | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN |
| 01:24 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Reynoldsville | Jefferson, PA | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN |
| 01:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Dubois | Clearfield, PA | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN DUBOIS |
| 01:44 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Glen Campbell | Indiana, PA | MULTIPLE TREES AND WIRES DOWN |
| 02:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Sw Freeport | Butler, PA | MULTIPLE TREES AND WIRES DOWN ON FREEPORT ROAD |
| 02:12 UTC | FLOOD | 2 E Punxsutawney | Jefferson, PA | FLOODED ROADWAYS OUTSIDE BIG RUN IN GASKILL TOWNSHIP |
| 02:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Sw Grampian | Clearfield, PA | TREE PARTIALLY BLOCKING ROADWAY ON MAHAFFEY-GRAMPIAN HIGHWAY |
| 02:37 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Homer City | Indiana, PA | MULTIPLE TREES AND WIRES DOWN |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 18, 2014
18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 18 | 1:15 AM CDT | EF0 | Clay, IA | 0.2 | 50 | $5,000 | ||
| June 18 | 7:27 AM CDT | EF0 | Dane, WI | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| June 18 | 6:05 PM CDT | EF1 | Hyde, SD | 0.7 | 40 | |||
| June 18 | 6:07 PM CDT | EF0 | Buffalo, SD | 2.0 | 400 | |||
| June 18 | 6:45 PM CDT | EF0 | Buffalo, SD | 0.7 | 250 | |||
| June 18 | 6:58 PM CDT | EF1 | Jerauld, SD | 0.7 | 50 | $15,000 | ||
| June 18 | 7:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Faulk, SD | 1.2 | 75 | |||
| June 18 | 7:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Hand, SD | 0.2 | 75 | |||
| June 18 | 7:01 PM CDT | EF1 | Jerauld, SD | 6.8 | 150 | $50,000 | ||
| June 18 | 7:08 PM CDT | EF0 | McIntosh, ND | 0.0 | 20 | |||
| June 18 | 7:08 PM CDT | EF2 | Jerauld, SD | 0.8 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| June 18 | 7:30 PM CDT | EF2 | Jerauld, SD | 2.2 | 200 | 1 | $5.2 million | |
| June 18 | 7:43 PM CDT | EF4 | Jerauld, SD | 11.5 | 880 | 2 | $300,000 | |
| June 18 | 7:45 PM CDT | EF2 | Jerauld, SD | 1.1 | 100 | $25,000 | ||
| June 18 | 8:16 PM MDT | EF0 | Washington, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 18 | 8:26 PM MDT | EF0 | Washington, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 18 | 8:36 PM MDT | EF0 | Washington, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 18 | 10:24 PM CDT | EF0 | Lyon, MN | 0.3 | 50 |
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.