EF0 tornado, Franklin Fisher Arpt to Petroleum Center, Pennsylvania, April 14, 2019

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

April 14, 2019

Touchdown

7:53 PM EDT (23:53 UTC)

Lifted

7:55 PM EDT (23:55 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

Venango County

Touchdown point

41.545, -79.687

Lift-off point

41.555, -79.673

Record number

1904141753-01

Strong low pressure emerged from the Lower Mississippi Valley and rode up the Ohio Valley on April 14th. Destablization was able to occur as a dry slot formed behind morning rain, with CAPE building up to around 1500 J/kg. Also, 70-80 knots of effective bulk shear was able to organize convective updrafts and allow for some storm rotation. Convection quickly organized into a linear structure ahead of a cold front as it crossed southeast Ohio during the late afternoon, reaching the PA/OH border around 7:00 PM and the Laurel Highlands by 10:00 PM.||For this event, the tornado risk was perceived to be relatively high, with the Storm Prediction Center forecasting numeric probabilities in the vicinity of the Ohio River that were of an unusually high level. Two brief EF0 tornadoes were confirmed in Venango County, PA. Otherwise, straight-line wind damage was the primary impact, with a few reports of large hail as well.

A brief EF0 tornado was documented from along Bowman Road to along |Baker Road. A concentrated swath of tree damage was identified along|its path, with considerable snapping of hardwood limbs and |several hardwood trunks. Damage appears to have ceased before the |storm crossed Route 417. Peak winds were estimated to be between 75 and 80 MPH.

A brief, weak tornado occurred along Pioneer Road and Shreve Road. |Damage was limited to snapping of large branches from mature |hardwood trees. A few younger hardwood tree trunks also were |snapped. Peak winds were estimated to be between 65 and 70 MPH.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS PBZ issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:34 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:48 UTC and running to 01:09 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:29 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 Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:52 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 2019 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

33 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.