EF0 tornado, Beaver County, Pennsylvania, August 16, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF0, preliminary

Date

August 16, 2026

Touchdown

3:01 PM EDT (19:01 UTC)

Lifted

3:07 PM EDT (19:07 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

4.5 miles (7.2 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Beaver County

Touchdown point

40.572, -80.407

Lift-off point

40.575, -80.490

Highest wind the damage implies

75 mph

Surveyed by

NWS PBZ

The office's name for it

Hookstown

Survey last edited

August 19, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

After additional surveys on Wednesday, the initial tornado track along Upper Service Rd has been extended to the west.

Damage began in a wooded area off of Route 168 to the south of US30. Here several large limbs were snapped off, and a few smaller trunks were snapped also at 30-40 ft above ground. At this location, damage was concentrated in a narrow path, with some degree of convergent and cyclonic flow evident in the fall pattern. The damage was consistent with wind of 70-75 mph, marked by sporadic, concentrated snapping within a broader area of relatively unscathed trees.

The circulation appears to have weakened briefly as it progressed eastward across Route 168 and Silver Slipper Rd (where a few snapped limbs were noted).

A surge in the outflow appears to have diverted the circulation toward the southeast briefly, before it began to intensify again near US30 and Lincoln Ct. Along Lincoln Ct, several trees suffered limb damage consistent with wind of 70 mph.

The circulation tracked into the woods north of Bocktown Rd, where it joins with the prior-identified track off Upper Service Rd, where radar and damage both indicate that the circulation tightened and intensified.

...Prior survey summary below...

Tree damage was observed from Upper Service Road, with fresh, large limbs snapped and a couple snapped trunks that showed some sign of rot.

The circulation crossed Upper Service Road near the Greene/Raccoon Township line, where considerable fresh tree damage was noted in the woods to the north of the road. Here, additional rotted trunks were snapped, as well as a large number of snapped limbs and possibly an uprooted tree or two (it was difficult to tell from the available ground access point).

Radar data from KPBZ radar suggest a possible tornado debris signature in this area, coincident with the damage swath.

Because of the damage swath's inaccessibility, start and end points of the tornado's path are only estimates, pending additional information from aerial survey or satellite imagery.

Written by NWS PBZ in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

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 EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Several large limbs snapped back in the hollow south of Upper Service Rd. A rotted trunk was snapped closer to the road, which brought down power lines.
• Difficult to discern magnitude, but several trees appeared to be down back in the woods as visible from the road. A couple snapped trunks were noted, but these showed signs of interior rot. Other, healthier trees appeared to have snapped large limbs.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS PBZ issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:00 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:18 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:05 UTC and running to 22:09 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:44 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), 20 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:01 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 2026 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.