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F1 tornado in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

Tornado June 2, 1998 · Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

F1
Rating
32.0 mi
Whole path
300 yd
Path width
50
Injuries
$13.0M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Allegheny County → Westmoreland County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F1 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F1 meant moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken; the scale paired it with winds of 73–112 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

The wider storm

An F1 tornado touched down 5 miles northwest of Carnegie in Allegheny County and moved east-southeast across the southern and eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh into Westmoreland County. The total path length of this tornado was estimated to be 32 miles, and damage was reported in Mount Washington, Hazelwood, and Rankin in Allegheny County. As the tornado passed over a concrete railroad overpass about 2 miles north of Baldwin, it blew several railroad cars onto their sides. The tornado continued into Westmoreland county, moving through the towns of Irwin and Manor. The Mount Washington area, located just south of downtown Pittsburgh, sustained the majority of damage, along with all of the minor injuries. Property damage in the Mount Washington area included roofs blown off buildings, brick walls torn down, and other major structural damage. Over 1000 structures, mostly in the immediate Pittsburgh area, reported some sort of damage. Other than the damage on Mount Wahington, most of the damage was minor, produced as the result of tree damage from falling trees or tree limbs.

Began near Irwin (40.3700, -79.7500).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5668877. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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