While taking a break from working on his truck Sunday evening, Kurt Stopperich looked to the sky and saw a "solid mass" that meteorologists now think was a circulating funnel cloud north of Canonsburg.
The funnel cloud never touched the ground, meaning it is not considered a tornado, but the National Weather Service in Moon Township said Monday that the base of the rotation was very close to the surface in Chartiers and Cecil townships.
"There's no doubt there was some circulation with that storm. We're just very fortunate that it didn't touch ground," meteorologist Bob Coblentz said. "There was really no (property) damage caused by that."
The strong storms that pounded Western Pennsylvania prompted the weather service to issue a tornado warning at 5:16 p.m. Coblentz said the radar gave strong indications that a tornado might be produced.
Stopperich was inside a work shed when he stepped outside for a moment as rain water poured inside. He heard a popping noise and saw what appeared to be a funnel cloud about 300 feet from his property at 587 Brigich Road in Chartiers Township.
It drifted above the tree line in a northeastern direction from Plum Run Road to Route 980 and into Cecil Township.
"All the trash was going past, and rain was going sideways. It looked like there was a solid mass in the rain," Stopperich said. "The rain was coming down in sheets, but there was a mass inside of it. It didn't touch down, but stayed up in the air a little bit."
It uprooted several trees on his property, but Stopperich said he never felt endangered by the storm.
"I didn't know if my eyes were playing tricks on me," he said. "I've only seen it in videos."
Coblentz acknowledged Stopperich may have witnessed a funnel cloud, although that type of weather event is not completely unusual for this region. What is not typical is how close the circulating cloud came to touching the ground. However, even if it had touched down, it is likely it would have been a weak tornado.
"A signature that low, that tight, a lot of times it's going to touch down," Coblentz said. "We covered all our bases with the storm. We were fortunate. ... It had every indication there would be some sort of touchdown, and it obviously was very close."
The last recorded tornado to strike Washington County happened June 30, 1990, when a moderate twister briefly rolled through the Beallsville area and caused about $25,000 in damage, according to the National Climatic Data Center's Web site.
Sunday's storms caused no major property damage but knocked down countless trees and power lines north of Canonsburg. The damage there likely was caused by the funnel cloud and microbursts producing winds as high as 60 mph. Workers continued clearing fallen trees Monday, mainly on Plum Run and Brigich roads in Chartiers and Burnside and Papp roads in Cecil.
Allegheny Power restored electricity to most of the homes affected Sunday night in Washington County. However, 137 homes in Finleyville and 86 homes in Coal Center remained without power Monday afternoon.