EF2 tornado, Bower Hill to Coal Bluff, Pennsylvania, May 11, 2024

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

May 11, 2024

Touchdown

6:06 PM EDT (22:06 UTC)

Lifted

6:19 PM EDT (22:19 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

5.8 miles (9.4 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Washington County

Touchdown point

40.270, -80.060

Lift-off point

40.260, -79.950

Record number

2405111606-01

17 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PBZ, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 118 mph.

• Numerous trees snapped a few feet from the base.
• A few trees down. Potential start point.
• Tree snap at based. Play set demolished.
• A number of snapped healthy trees

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A warm front pushed a swath of light to moderate showers across the Upper Ohio Valley during the morning and midday hours of May 11th. Behind this boundary, the increase in low-level moisture and partial clearing helped instability to recover fairly rapidly, and allowed for an increase in shear as well. Discrete storms then fired ahead of an advancing cold front during the early afternoon, and then they advanced across southwest Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia through the remainder of the afternoon and early evening. In eastern Ohio, all storm reports were of hail between 0.75 and 1.25 inch diameter, but as storms matured in southwest Pennsylvania, hail reports increased up to 1.75 inch, as well as a few reports of straight-line wind. Storms closer to the PA/WV border were able to take advantage of sufficient low-level instability and surface vorticity to allow for the development of three tornadoes, one of which was a more significant EF2 twister.

An NWS storm survey confirmed that an EF-2 tornado, with winds peaking near 118 MPH, tracked through northern Washington County on the evening of May 11, 2024. The length was 5.92 miles and the maximum width was estimated to be 200 yards. ||The tornado first touched down along Oak Ridge Drive, where minor |tree damage was noted. Estimated wind gusts in this vicinity were near 90 MPH to 95 MPH. The tornado continued to track across a farm hillside, then it hit a small shed in a planning community on Equestrian Drive. Tree damage was also noted along Equestrian Drive, Bride Trail, Turkeyfoot Road, Fox Run Road, and Doubletree Drive. ||The tornado intensified near Church Hill Road and Greyhawk Circle, |where a two story garage received heavy damage. The roof and side walls were tossed 50 to 75 yards downstream. Large hardwood trees were also snapped and/or uprooted next to the destroyed garage between Kingston Circle and Greyhawk Circle. ||Shingle damage was noted to a number of homes along Kingston Circle and Hedgerow Drive. Viral video footage was captured along Longleaf Drive as the tornado tracked over a field and impacted homes along McClelland Road. one home on McClelland Road lost 50% of its roof, had a destroyed shed, and a number of trees were either snapped or uprooted surrounding the property. Their neighbor had their entire |garage destroyed and had some shingle damage. The tornado lifted the metal roof of the garage and siding over 500 yards towards Route 88. ||The tornado continued towards Walter Long Road and caused roof damage at Crossroads Ministries. A religious service was being held at the time and two attendees received minor injuries as broken glass from windows blew out. The church steeple broke free from the front of the building and landed in pieces on a few parked cars. About 1,000 square feet of the church lost its entire roof. Insulation from the church was found 2.5 miles away in some trees (along Stone Church Road). As the tornado tracked towards State Route 88, the range of maximum wind speed was between 111 MPH to 118 MPH. ||Significant tree damage was noted and a power pole between Morgan Lane and Ridge Avenue was snapped adjacent to Route 88. The tornado continued towards Brownsville Road Extension where large trees were uprooted and/or snapped and roof damage was visible to a home. A storage shed, at the intersection of Chevy Chase Drive, Mcchain Road, and Seward Road, lost over 20% of its metal roof and portions of its side walls. ||Additional tree damage was noted along Curry Lane, Dennison Lane, Aber Road, and Lobbs Run Road before the tornado dissipated less than 2 miles northwest of Elrama.

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

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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:07 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.

Pittsburgh/Alleghen (AGC), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 35 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:04 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.

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 2024 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.