Aug 3, 2022 3 min read

Fayette County dodged major damage Monday evening, as a possible tornado and severe weather swept through southwestern Pennsylvania and the northern panhandle of West Virginia.

On Tuesday, the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh sent out teams of meteorologists to locations in Marshall County, W.Va., central Greene County, and Washington County, to determine if tornadoes touched down. 

The weather service said on Tuesday it is considering sending a team to Fayette County on Wednesday to survey storm damage in Ohiopyle.

The weather service had issued a tornado warning in Farmington, Ohiopyle and Markleysburg Monday night. The warning, which expired at 8:45 p.m., after radar indicated rotating wind in a thunderstorm.

According to Pat Harold, a meteorologist with the weather service, there was sufficient wind shear in the atmosphere to cause rotation.

An earlier severe thunderstorm warning from the weather service indicated possible quarter size hail and wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour. 

Roy Shipley Jr., director of the Fayette County Emergency Management Agency, the county received about half a dozen phone calls about fallen trees.

“We have no reported significant damage in the county,” said Shipley. “As alerts were coming through for Greene and Washington counties, we were watching. We had heavy rain that didn’t last long, and a few downed trees throughout the county.”

According to a representative from First Energy, nearly 1,000 West Penn Power customers in Fayette County were without power following the storm.

By 3 p.m. Tuesday, power had been restored to all customers. 

The weather service spent much of Tuesday investigating whether a tornado touched down in Washington and Greene counties after receiving various reports Monday night of a funnel cloud near the state line with West Virginia’s northern panhandle.

Greene County Emergency Management Director Rich Policz said the majority of storm damage was reported in Center Township along Scott Run and Morris Run roads about two miles west of Rogersville.

Emergency crews found trees damaged in the area, along with siding ripped from one house, a farm utility building destroyed and a recreation vehicle turned onto its side, Policz said.

Police cited a cell phone video posted to social media that appears to show a funnel cloud and possible tornado coming from West Virginia and approaching Washington and Greene counties.

If confirmed, it would be only the eighth tornado reported in Greene County since 1950, but the third one to strike the county in the past six years.

While there was damage in western Greene County, there were fewer problems reported in Washington County, according to county Public Safety Service Director Gerry Coleman. He said he contacted the 911 dispatch center Monday night and was surprised to learn there was only one report of utility wires down in West Finley Township, where the storm cloud was spotted.

“I was shocked,” Coleman said about the lack of damage in Washington County. “I had some national media call (Monday) night. All the new channels were tracking it and I did see a video from someone who took a pretty good video of what I would call a tornado, not a funnel cloud.”

Once a rare occurrence, tornadoes in the region have become more commonplace in recent years. According to NWS Pittsburgh records, there were 32 tornadoes in the region last year – including 15 in October alone – despite the area typically averaging three or four annually.