stormitecture Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 As Ellinwood mentioned...we nabbed a funnel cloud, which I'm a bit more leaning toward a tornado touching down than Ellinwood, but of course I'm not a professional damage assessor either. After a number of spots we happen to be turning back north toward a better couplet after what I thought was going to be a new meso ended up being part of a feeder band. We jumped on I-81 north, and proceeded north. There isn't a lot of exits there, so we pushed right up to what I figured was the core, and exited at exit #10 (rt. 914) right there near Marion. As I drove up the ramp, I could see just on the other side of the ramp, about 1000-2000 feet ahead a couple of fast succession of power flashes (I later found that to likely have come from a nearby electrical substation). We quickly turned right (east) and headed down a few road that took us in a general ESE direction. Stopping at one point, jumped out and observed a funnel cloud. We quickly made a report, and got in the car to keep up with the circulation. We stayed with it for a while, but it generally started to fade. We continued to see a nice couplet to the north, but it was well entrained within the sheets of rain. We tip-toed north and east for a bit...finally realizing we were done for the day. Having just witnessed a couple of emergency vehicles go past, we U-turned it and head in the general direction of where we though the "path" of the "assumed" tornado would be if there had been one. We came across a spot where the emergency vehicles had responded but we already leaving the scene (no emergency). What was in that spot was one large fallen tree over the roadway, and another large set of branches that fell on the roadway. Ellinwood took a look and discovered a car in-between...un-damaged (except maybe the mental state of that driver...can you imagine). We took photos...made a second report...and left. Before leaving a PA trooper advised that there was much more "damage" in Marion. That would be our next stop. After some computer issues (lost the video stream, GPS, etc.), but did manage to return to Marion (redundancy NAV/Electronics...FTW). Upon our return, noted damaged trees, pushed over grasses (with some circular motion indicated...but not CLEARLY) and then found the overturned tracker trailer on I-81...just on the otherside of the ramp. It was at this time we started to put pieces together. The trailer was just the opposite side of the ramp...where I had originally saw some of the power flashes. This was "inline" with where our funnel ended up at our observation point. This is why I believe it was a small and low scale rated tornado. There was some more wide spread damage, but a small portion was more intense than others. As Ellinwood eluded, there will be video. I've already edited and pushed clips to the Networks (hoping for a sale). I'm working on a public version for uploading to YouTube. Once complete, I will post that here. My Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/weatherwarriordotnet (for those that have signatures turned off) Thanks to those that watched on the live video feed (aka streaming video). Hope it was entertaining, we didn't run audio today...focused on getting a slightly higher quality video image out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormitecture Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 The video is complete and uploaded now: Andrew especially, will recognize some of the spots in the video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinwood Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 EF-1 tornado and downburst confirmed about a mile away from us as we were chasing the cell: 000 NWUS51 KCTP 280415 LSRCTP PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STATE COLLEGE PA 1215 AM EDT SAT MAY 28 2011 ..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON... ..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE.... ..REMARKS.. 0610 PM TORNADO NEW FRANKLIN 39.88N 77.64W 05/26/2011 FRANKLIN PA NWS STORM SURVEY A TORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHED DOWN JUST WEST OF ROUTE 316 IN NEW FRANKLIN IN A HEAVILY WOODED AREA. MORE THAN A DOZEN PINE TREES WERE SNAPPED OFF. THE TORNADO DAMAGE AREA WAS LOCATED ON THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF A MUCH LARGER AREA OF DOWNBURST WIND DAMAGE WHICH EXTENDED FROM JUST WEST OF ROUTE 81 IN THE MARION AREA EASTWARD THROUGH BROWNSVILLE. BASED ON THE SEVERITY OF TREE DAMAGE IN THE AREA...MAXIMUM WINDS WERE ESTIMATED AT 90 MPH...WHICH RATES THIS AN EF1 TORNADO ON THE ENHANCED FUJITA SCALE. && EVENT NUMBER CTP1100198 $$ LA CORTE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorEaster27 Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 storms with hail today just west of lake george, hit one near exit 24 on the northway. Car made it out ok but it was really coming down with rain and hail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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