EF0 tornado, Kendall, Pennsylvania, May 25, 2024

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

May 25, 2024

Touchdown

4:59 PM EDT (20:59 UTC)

Lifted

5:00 PM EDT (21:00 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Beaver County

Touchdown point

40.550, -80.468

Lift-off point

40.549, -80.467

Record number

2405251459-01

2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PBZ, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Small to medium branches broken from maple tree. New utility pole already re-set but powerlines still down. All adjacent trees and vegetation with no discernable damage
• One large maple snapped (interior disease and rot) and another smaller tree uprooted across the street from initial damage marker. No visible signs of damage to adjacent home, shed, or garages.

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

A passing shortwave trough and an advancing cold front worked with ample levels of instability and shear to initiate thunderstorms over eastern Ohio around midday on May 25th. The storms increased in coverage and intensity in southwest Pennsylvania through the afternoon and early evening, and continued into the early morning hours of May 26th south of the PA/WV border. Numerous reports of tree and power line damage were received in southwest Pennsylvania, along with reports of hail up to 2 inches in diameter. In addition, a brief and weak tornado occurred near Raccoon Creek State Park in Beaver County.

A National Weather Service damage survey concluded that a brief tornado touchdown occurred along Pleasant Hills road, just north of the Raccoon Creek State Park boundary in Beaver County, PA. Damage was limited to a utility pole and several mature trees on adjacent properties either side of the road. One medium sized hardwood was uprooted, while a second large, but diseased maple tree was snapped. Several other additional trees had large branches broken off. A peak wind speed of 75 MPH was estimated. It was noted that neither property, nor a shed, garage or RV suffered damage. Additionally, the overwhelming vast majority of other trees and vegetation had no damage. In addition to the low-reflectivity hook echo and velocity couple observed on both KPBZ and TPIT Doppler radars, one of the residents provided video of a slender funnel cloud as the storm passed. Aerial drone footage, a ground survey of the Raccoon Creek State Park, nor interviews with Pennsylvania DCNR rangers were able to confirm any additional damage as the circulation passed through extremely rough and densely forested terrain over the state park.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS PBZ issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:59 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:09 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 International (PIT), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 21 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:59 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

19 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.