Thunderstorm Wind — Somerset, Pennsylvania

2025-04-19 · near Addison, Somerset, Pennsylvania

Event narrative

A severe thunderstorm, producing straight-line winds in excess of 95 mph, caused extensive tree damage in Addison and elk Lick Townships. In Addison, a tree fell onto a residence, with multiple trees knocked down across roadways in Addison, knocking out power for a majority of the town. Two people were injured in Addison when an ATV collided with a downed tree. Extensive tree damage continued into Salisbury, where a silo also collapsed into a barn, causing the barn to collapse.

Wider weather episode

Ample instability and modest shear ahead of an approaching cold front allowed for scattered convection to occur across the northern half of Pennsylvania during the early afternoon hours, producing isolated instances of tree and wire damage mainly along the Interstate 80 corridor of central Pennsylvania. Later in the evening hours, enhanced destabilization across the southern tier of Pennsylvania ahead of an approaching mesoscale convective system allowed for a long-track thunderstorm to traverse across the area, with widespread damage observed in a corridor of downdraft CAPE values approaching 1000 J/kg from Somerset County through Adams County, with sunset allowing for less destabilization further east. The most widespread damage was observed in Elk Lick Township and Addison Township in Somerset County, where straight-line wind damage brought down numerous trees and wires, with two people injured when their ATV collided with a large downed tree. Extensive damage was also observed in Salisbury (Somerset County) where a silo collapsed into a barn, completely destroying the barn.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.7435, -79.3353)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1252361. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.