Tornado with 93 mph winds touched down in Centre County earlier this week, NWS confirms
.jpg "The National Weather Service at State College confirmed that a tornado touched down in Centre County on Sunday.")
A tornado touched down in Centre County earlier this week.
An EF-1 tornado occurred near Zion just after 3 p.m. Sunday, according to the National Weather Service at State College.
The tornado went through a forested area and the damage was mainly to trees, the NWS said, as it uprooted “several large trees.” It was on the ground for approximately five minutes, between 3:08-3:13 p.m., and tracked 0.62 miles, according to the NWS.
“Prior to tornado touchdown, there was sporadic straight-line wind damage observed at the intersection of East College Avenue and Stover Rd and a few points farther east along Wilson Farm Lane,” the NWS’ summary states. “The tornado first touched down just east of the end of Ralphs Lane and then moved (east northeast), uprooting several large trees. The tornado deviated to a northeasterly track before dissipating east of Dusty Lane.”
The winds of the tornado maxed out at an estimated 93 mph and its max width was 200 yards, the NWS said.
No injuries or deaths were reported, and no structures were impacted.
“No structures were impacted directly by the tornado before it dissipated as it ascended a ridge to the east of Zion,” the summary states. The NWS thanks the residents for their help with access to “this remote and dangerously sloped area.”
The Enhanced Fujita scale or EF scale, is “used to assign a tornado a rating based on estimated wind speeds and related damage,” according to the NWS website. It ranges from EF-0 to EF-5. EF-1 is listed as “weak” on the NWS website.
