National Weather Service confirms tornado in Washington County
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Power lines were knocked down by severe weather Thursday evening on Hill Place Road in Venetia.
The tornado uprooted dozens of trees as it ripped through Washington County.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Hill Place Road in Venetia was closed Friday morning as crews worked to clear the road of trees and debris from Thursday night’s weather event. Residents said they lost power around 8 p.m. Thursday evening and were still waiting for their lights to come on well into Friday afternoon.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Becky and Steve Evans spent Friday morning cleaning their yard along Hill Place Road in Venetia after a tornado touched down nearby in Peters Township Thursday night. The damage extended up Hill Place and affected much of Springdale Road, along with neighboring roads.
A tornado was confirmed by the National Weather Service to have touched down in northwestern Washington County Thursday night.
Meteorologist Jason Frazier said the tornado passed through Mount Pleasant and Hopewell townships between 7:40 and 7:50 p.m. Thursday.
He said confirmation was based on factors including the severe damage to homes in that area.
While the tornado was confirmed, Frazier said Friday afternoon it was too soon to classify it.
“It was confirmed based on radar,” Frazier explained. “The strength, intensity, wind speed or how long or how wide it was, none of that is available to us until we conduct the storm surveys.”
Teams were to evaluate affected areas Friday and Saturday as more severe weather was reported.
“We want to determine if it was all one tornado or a series of tornadoes,” Frazier said.
Fellow meteorologist Michael Brown explained the process that goes into determining the presence of a tornado.
“We essentially look at signs of damage,” he explained. “Does the damage follow a general path? How is the debris carried? We also look at the patterns of the trees.”
Observer-Reporter staff writer Mike Jones of Washington was at Waterdam Plaza on Route 19 in Peters Township with Matt Latimer of Peters Township Thursday at about 8:05 p.m. when a sound caught their attention.
“We heard this rapid-fire crashing and cracking noise,” Jones said. “So we both got up and looked outside and saw a triangular funnel cloud moving east behind Ace Hardware. It was a clear triangular shape that looked to be a funnel cloud moving to the east. We both looked at each other and couldn’t believe what we just saw. It just kind of floated behind Ace Hardware. There was this weird orange glow at the bottom. The sound was what I couldn’t believe. That’s what got us up and looking. We looked across Route 19 and this object was heading east.”
Jones was told by a representative of the National Weather Service that it was possibly a tornado.
“What I described to them is consistent with the time and the location of the cell that they’re investigating as a possible tornado,” Jones said. “What (a meteorologist) told me is it was about a half-mile from our location. He said it wasn’t as bad in Peters Township as it was in Avella, because if it had been, there are houses and businesses all over the place there.”
This actually has been a busy month for tornadoes in the Pittsburgh area, with nine confirmed so far in October, five of them on Oct. 16, according to the NWS. The weather service also said there have been 27 confirmed tornadoes so far in 2021, when typically the average is three per year.
“There’s really nothing to attribute that to,” Frazier said. “We have entered a weather pattern that’s been conducive to allowing this more than in recent years. It’s really only after analysis of about a decade or so that we’ll be able to see if there is any connection to something like global warming that leads to events like this. We won’t know that for many years.”
The weather activity did result in a number of power outages, especially in Washington County.
Todd Meyers, a spokesman for West Penn Power, said 1,591 Washington County customers lost power. About 1,000 of those were in Peters Township. The Washington County number had been reduced to 380 without power at noon Friday, 25 in Peters Township.
“Washington County got whacked pretty good,” Meyers said, adding that all power was expected to be restored by late Friday afternoon or early Friday evening.
The undertaking to get power restored forced an all-hands-on-deck approach for West Penn Power.
“We actually have 65 linemen out,” Meyers said Friday afternoon, adding that workers came from areas such as Charleroi, Jeannette and Latrobe to lend a hand. “There’s a lot of folks out there right now pitching in to help crews that work out of the local Washington area. There are 20 separate areas with damage.”
Meyers said the areas with the most damage went from Avella to Houston to Venetia.
“A lot of wind and tree damage caused the ruckus,” Meyers said. “Among the things that need to be fixed are 16 broken poles. It can take some serious time to get them back up in the air.”
Meyers explained that crews spent Thursday night isolating the damage and feeding customers in different ways.
Meyers warned to stay clear of any downed lines and contact 911 or West Penn Power at 1-888-LIGHTSS (1-888-544-4877) to report any that may be seen.
“If you see a downed line, just stay well clear of it,” Meyers said. “If there’s a tree laying against a power line, report it to us. Don’t try to help us. Leave the fix up to us. Always assume anything you see on the ground is a live wire.”