EF0 Tornado — Erie, Pennsylvania

2023-08-12 · near Elgin, Erie, Pennsylvania

Event narrative

A brief EF0 tornado with estimated peak winds of 70 mph moved generally southeastward on the southeastern outskirts of Union City. The tornado began just northeast of the intersection of O'Neil Road and Concord Road, and ended before reaching Concord Road. The tornado damaged several trees. One of these trees was downed onto a home, which caused minor structural damage.

Wider weather episode

An occluded surface low meandered near the eastern shore of Lake Superior during the late morning through early evening of the 12th. Simultaneously, the trailing cold front swept southeastward from southeastern Lower MI and northern IN to central Lake Erie and north-central/west-central portions of OH. Multiple multicell thunderstorms and a supercell thunderstorm occurred ahead of the cold front in northwest PA. These storms produced small hail, damaging convective gusts, and a tornado in a warm sector comprised of moderate to strong MUCAPE and effective bulk shear, respectively, mixed-layer lifting condensation levels near 750 to 1500 meters AGL, and strong surface-based effective storm-relative helicity near 150 meters squared per second squared.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.8790, -79.7884)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1152456. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.