NWS confirms tornado touched down in Washington County
The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh said Thursday a tornado touched down Wednesday in Washington County.
A survey team was on site Thursday afternoon to examine storm damage in Chartiers and North Strabane townships, the weather service said.
The tornado started near Houston and ended in Finleyville, covering a path of 14.5 miles with a maximum width of 200 yards.
The tornado was rated EF-1, with peak winds estimated at 90 mph.
Residents said Wednesday’s storm was brief, but destructive, and dozens of trees were toppled in Chartiers and North Strabane. Debris was scattered across the area.
“I was on my porch when I got a weather alert on my phone, a tornado warning, and I ran back to tell my husband that we needed to go down to the basement. By the time I went back to get him and we went downstairs, it was over,” said Mary Lou Polasky of Chartiers Township.
“We went outside to check on our neighbors and make sure everyone was OK, and we saw that Walnut Street was hit pretty badly. In the back, a large pine tree was uprooted and fell on another pine tree, and that tree fell in our neighbor’s yard and on the roof of the house next to it. It was scary.”
The Kosik family narrowly avoided disaster as a large tree on their property in Chartiers Township fell, missing their home but slightly damaging a truck parked in the driveway.
The family was out celebrating a birthday when the storm struck.
“It all happened really fast. A message popped up on my phone and I saw there was a tornado warning,” said Nicole Kosik. “The truck has some dents, but the tree ended up surrounding it and not falling on it, so we were lucky.”
Chartiers Township Business Manager Jodi Noble said the township’s emergency management coordinator toured the damage early Thursday. Walnut Street and Locust Avenue were among the hardest-hit roads.
“We were very fortunate that there were no reported injuries. There are lots of trees down, some structure damage to homes either from trees or wind damage, and vehicle damage from debris blowing into vehicles,” Noble said.
In North Strabane, the storm also caused power outages, and as of Thursday at 3 p.m., about 300 residents were without power.
“We got lucky because the area that got hit the hardest was the area behind Johnson Road, where a lot of older trees got taken out, but there aren’t a lot of houses. But we have a lot of residents who are frustrated because they lost power and for some, it’s their third hit in three weeks,” said North Strabane Township Manager Andrew Walz.
The tornado is the second recorded in Washington County this year, and the first EF-1 to hit since June 25, 2024.
The region usually averages six tornadoes annually, according to NWS, so this season is tracking above average.
NWS Pittsburgh meteorologist Liana Lupo said the weather service issued multiple tornado warnings across Southwestern Pennsylvania from about 5 to 5:30 p.m., as radar detected rotation in the areas of North Strabane and Chartiers townships.
The storms caused minimal flooding.
Two tornadoes also landed in Butler County Wednesday afternoon, the weather service confirmed.
The tornadoes were rated EF-0, with winds near 85 mph.