Strong Wind — Perry, Pennsylvania

2025-02-16 to 2025-02-17 · Perry, Pennsylvania

Event narrative

Strong wind gusts, measured at 50 mph, knocked down multiple trees across Perry County during the late afternoon and evening hours of February 16, 2025 with strong winds continuing into the early morning hours of February 17. The first instance of trees and wires down occurs in Loysville, blocking portions of Couchtown Road and closing the roadway for multiple hours. A second set of trees and wires down were reported in Newport. A pine tree also fell onto wires northwest of New Bloomfield.

Wider weather episode

A strong area of low pressure west of Pennsylvania during the evening hours of February 15, 2025 slowly drifted eastward into central Pennsylvania throughout the day on February 16th. The area of low pressure began to stall out across central Pennsylvania and deepen, allowing for an increased pressure gradient to set up across the area, with ample moisture being advected from the Atlantic Ocean under easterly winds. This allowed for widespread snow showers to begin across central Pennsylvania on February 16th during the early morning hours and continuing into the evening hours. Strong to high winds were observed across central Pennsylvania, highest across the Laurel Highlands with descending westerly flow from higher elevations and the Lower Susquehanna Valley near the tightening pressure gradient as the low pressure system continued to strengthen as it began moving offshore the New Jersey coast. In Somerset County, a combination of upslope moist flow and the tightening pressure gradient caused multiple hours of low visibilities from snowfall and blowing snow along with multiple hours with winds gusting over 40 mph, meeting blizzard conditions during the evening hours of February 16th. Damage from winds was observed across the Lower Susquehanna Valley, along with Bedford and Blair Counties where downsloping winds knocked down multiple trees and wires, knocking out power for portions of these counties.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1233784. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.