National Weather Service Raw Text Product

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NOUS41 KPBZ 041918
PNSPBZ
PAZ021-029-050500-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
National Weather Service PITTSBURGH PA
318 PM EDT Mon Jun 4 2018

...NWS DAMAGE SURVEY FOR TORNADO NEAR FINLEYVILLE PA...

.Finleyville Tornado...

Start Location...1S Finleyville PA 
Date...June 3, 2018 
Confirmed Time...811pm EDT - 813pm EDT 
Maximum EF-Scale Rating...EF0

...Summary...
A brief, weak tornado (rated EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale) 
occurred Sunday evening along Airport Road in Finleyville, PA. 

Eye-witness accounts, coupled with strong photographic evidence, 
confirm that a high-end EF0 tornado, with winds estimated at 75 to 
85 mph, touched down around 812 PM on June 3rd. 

The damage track began immediately adjacent (south) to a series of 
airplane hangars that reside along the southern flank of the 
Finleyville Airport runway. The airport sits along a peak in 
elevation just south of Finleyville. A narrow tornado, with a damage 
width of only 50 feet, descended southeast approximately 200 yards, 
across a residential property into a local valley before 
dissipating. Several large pine trees suffered scattered large limb 
damage with one mature pine snapped entirely at the base. An 
auxiliary two-story garage suffered damage to both entry doors on 
the north and south facing sides of the building, with substantial 
siding removed from the south facing side and lofted into downstream 
trees and a neighboring property. A wooden vehicle trailer was also 
lofted and displaced approximately 30 feet. Additionally, a large 
area of very tall grass along the southeast end of the property, was 
flattened with a very obvious convergent and rotational pattern. No 
damage was noted to the adjacent residences, confirming the damage 
width.

From a meteorological perspective, this tornado formed at the tail-
end of a long frontally-forced line of thunderstorms, coincident 
with a newly developing thunderstorm at the southwest end of the 
line. A cluster of showers and thunderstorms had preceded this 
frontal passage by only 15-20 minutes, likely leaving behind a 
localized outflow boundary that the advancing front interacted with. 
The strong updraft of the new tail-end cell coincided with the 
colliding boundaries, producing this short-lived but damaging non-
supercell tornado. 


EF Scale: The Enhanced Fujita Scale classifies tornadoes into the
following categories:

EF0...Weak......65 to 85 mph
EF1...Weak......86 to 110 mph
EF2...Strong....111 to 135 mph
EF3...Strong....136 to 165 mph
EF4...Violent...166 to 200 mph
EF5...Violent...>200 mph

* The information in this statement is preliminary and subject to
change pending final review of the event and publication in NWS
Storm Data.

$$

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