Confirmed tornado hit near Pittsburgh International Airport during early morning storms, NWS says

FINDLAY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — A confirmed tornado touched down in Allegheny County during Wednesday’s early morning storms.

PHOTOS: Multiple tornadoes touch down in Pittsburgh region, leaving behind path of destruction

The tornado hit near the Marriott at Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay Township at around 1:49 a.m. It ended a minute later. Thunder and lightning from the storm were caught on a doorbell video, and it shows what appears to be the now-confirmed tornado.

The National Weather Service said the tornado was rated an EF-1 and had 105 miles per hour winds. Most of the damage was along Aten Road, which the tornado touched down north of.

At least 15 to 20 trees were snapped as the tornado traveled .2 miles southeast.

At one point it went through a family’s backyard and it snapped and twisted trees in half before blowing the roof off the business next door.

When Patty and Ray Langer’s phones started blaring with a tornado warning, they immediately took cover in their basement.

“We went down and we were down there for about a half hour, but 15 minutes after we were down there, you could hear the wind and it was just [I] never experienced anything like that. I felt like the house was shaking a little bit,” Patty said.

The wind didn’t cause any damage to their home, but it knocked down a tree in their front yard and snapped several others in their backyard.

“We were lucky, Patty and I because it didn’t do any damage to our house at all,” Ray said.

Their neighbors weren’t as lucky. The roof of one of the sheds at Park West Supply blew off, and pieces of it were found a quarter of a mile away and on the Parkway West.

No one was hurt.

“We’re so blessed, so blessed. That’s what we’ve been saying as we’ve been cleaning up all day. We are alive and our house is in one piece. We can replace everything else,” Patty said.

This is the third confirmed tornado that hit the Pittsburgh area during Wednesday’s morning storm system. A tornado that was at least an EF-2 hit Hancock County in West Virginia and an EF-1 tornado touched down in Ligonier Township in Westmoreland County.

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