EF1 tornado in Franklin County, Pennsylvania

Tornado May 26, 2011 · Franklin County, Pennsylvania

EF1

Rating

0.1 mi

Path length

25 yd

Path width

$10K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 25 yards (0.01 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A NWS survey team determined that a tornado briefly touched down in the New Franklin area of Franklin County. The tornado touched down just east of Route 316 in a heavily wooded area. Most of the damage was confined to one residential address along Route 316 were more than two dozen large pine trees were snapped off or uprooted. Based on damage indicators, softwood trees, maximum winds were estimated at 90 mph, giving the tornado an EF1 classification.

The tornado damage was located on the southern edge of a much larger area of downburst wind damage which extended from just west of Route 81 in the Marion area eastward through Brownsville.

The wider storm

A significant severe weather outbreak occurred across central Pennsylvania during the afternoon and evening hours on 26 May 2011. A total of 6 tornadoes were confirmed ranging from EF0-EF2 in magnitude with multiple reports of large hail and damaging thunderstorm winds. Flash flooding was also reported with Franklin County with these storms.

Began near Zumbro (39.8821, -77.6346).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

5 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Cumberland County EF1 Perry County EF1 Lycoming County EF1 Lycoming County EF1 Schuylkill County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 295474. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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