October tornado outbreak only third in Pittsburgh-area in last 40 years

They were images more often seen in central Oklahoma than western Pennsylvania. Trees snapped, roofs blown off, property lost. What started as a quiet day of weather in our area with little chance of severe weather blew up into one of our biggest tornado days ever recorded in our area.

It was a legitimate “tornado outbreak”. Only the third in our area in the last 40 years.

Nearly two dozen tornadoes ravaged Pennsylvania in May 1985, killing 75 people — many of them in the WPXI viewing area.

More recently in 1998, an EF-1 tornado touched down on Mount Washington and cut a 30-plus mile path through Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. It was one of nine tornadoes that day.

While outbreaks here are rare, tornadoes are not. The images from a few weeks ago are a stark reminder that tornadoes do happen here...nearly 200 of them since 1950. Unfortunately, most of us are told as kids we don’t have to worry about tornadoes because the rivers and hills protect us. This is simply not true.

Fred McMullen from the Pittsburgh National Weather Service recalled the day. “We saw tornadoes kind of skipping the hilltops. And so, again, that folklore that exists that you’re protected by natural creations such as mountains and valleys is a misnomer, because tornadoes have happened in valleys, on hilltops, on high elevations, on mountain tops...through cities and airports. So, you know, they really don’t know any landmarks to stay away from. They just go where they need to go.

“So, the rivers and the mountains in our area do not protect us from tornadoes. You need surface-level winds and upper-level winds going in the same direction, but the upper-level winds are going much stronger. What that does is it creates a rotating column of air that at first is horizontal. But as the thunderstorm updrafts begin to punch a little hole into that, it eventually starts to turn on its side and that rotating column of air starts to go around. Then the wall cloud develops, and eventually, a tornado drops to the ground. So, the rivers and mountains have nothing to do with it. It’s all about the airflow and the shear in the atmosphere.”

This isn’t tornado alley around here. We all know that. But these images are people’s homes and lives and property. And they should be a reminder to us that tornadoes do happen here and they do damage here. Life-changing damage.

WEB EXTRA: Behind the scenes with Severe Weather Team 11 meteorologist Scott Harbaugh

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