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.

  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.

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)ExpiredProductOffice
13:46 UTC16:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryPBZ
22:00 UTC12:49 UTCFlash Flood WatchPBZ
23:01 UTC02:13 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchPBZ
00:38 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ
00:54 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ

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.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 2014-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1705 joules per kilogram, CIN -14, lifted condensation level 1355 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 2014-06-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 91 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Pittsburgh, PA (KAGC), 12:00Z

11.2 hours after it, 104 km from the path. June 19, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 2014-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 163 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 563 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 2014-06-19The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 23 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:18 UTCTSTM WND DMGPleasantvilleVenango, PAMULTIPLE TREES DOWN
23:20 UTCHAIL 1.75PleasantvilleVenango, PA
23:38 UTCHAIL 0.75Oil CityVenango, PA
00:05 UTCTSTM WND DMGBarkeyvilleVenango, PATREES DOWN ALONG I-80 NEAR MILE MARKER 28. TREES WERE NOT BLOCKING THE ROAD
00:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGClintonvilleVenango, PACOUPLE OF TREES DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
00:12 UTCFLOOD2 E GreenvilleArmstrong, PAREPORTS OF WATER FROM CREEKS OUT OF THEIR BANKS... ROADWAYS COVERED WITH WATER... SOME BASEMENT FLOODING.
00:12 UTCHAIL 11 S UreyIndiana, PA
00:29 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 S St. PetersburgClarion, PAMULTIPLE TREES DOWN
00:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGBurnsideClearfield, PATREES AND WIRES DOWN ON MAPLE STREET
00:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGBurnsideClearfield, PATREES DOWN ON ROUTE 219. ROAD BLOCKED.
00:38 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sse ShamburgClarion, PAMULTIPLE TREES DOWN
00:49 UTCTORNADO1 Ese FrogtownClarion, PAEF0 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 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 W ShannondaleClarion, PASEVERAL TREES UPROOTED ALONG PARADISE ROAD SOUTH OF TORNADO TRACK
01:06 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Se South BethlehemArmstrong, PAMULTIPLE TREES DOWN
01:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Ene WorthvilleJefferson, PAMULTIPLE TREES DOWN IN THE TOWN OF OLIVER
01:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGBrookvilleJefferson, PAMULTIPLE TREES DOWN
01:24 UTCTSTM WND DMGReynoldsvilleJefferson, PAMULTIPLE TREES DOWN
01:35 UTCTSTM WND DMGDuboisClearfield, PANUMEROUS TREES DOWN DUBOIS
01:44 UTCTSTM WND DMGGlen CampbellIndiana, PAMULTIPLE TREES AND WIRES DOWN
02:05 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sw FreeportButler, PAMULTIPLE TREES AND WIRES DOWN ON FREEPORT ROAD
02:12 UTCFLOOD2 E PunxsutawneyJefferson, PAFLOODED ROADWAYS OUTSIDE BIG RUN IN GASKILL TOWNSHIP
02:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Sw GrampianClearfield, PATREE PARTIALLY BLOCKING ROADWAY ON MAHAFFEY-GRAMPIAN HIGHWAY
02:37 UTCTSTM WND DMGHomer CityIndiana, PAMULTIPLE 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.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 181:15 AM CDTEF0Clay, IA0.250$5,000
June 187:27 AM CDTEF0Dane, WI0.230
June 186:05 PM CDTEF1Hyde, SD0.740
June 186:07 PM CDTEF0Buffalo, SD2.0400
June 186:45 PM CDTEF0Buffalo, SD0.7250
June 186:58 PM CDTEF1Jerauld, SD0.750$15,000
June 187:00 PM CDTEF0Faulk, SD1.275
June 187:00 PM CDTEF0Hand, SD0.275
June 187:01 PM CDTEF1Jerauld, SD6.8150$50,000
June 187:08 PM CDTEF0McIntosh, ND0.020
June 187:08 PM CDTEF2Jerauld, SD0.8100$20,000
June 187:30 PM CDTEF2Jerauld, SD2.22001$5.2 million
June 187:43 PM CDTEF4Jerauld, SD11.58802$300,000
June 187:45 PM CDTEF2Jerauld, SD1.1100$25,000
June 188:16 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.150
June 188:26 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.150
June 188:36 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.150
June 1810:24 PM CDTEF0Lyon, MN0.350

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.