WEATHER ROLLER COASTER
Region rides out pounding rain, a tornado, flooding, snow and next week, temps in the 70s
After a tornado Thursday night in Uniontown and flooding across the region, more typical February weather was expected to return to southwestern Pennsylvania this weekend.
The National Weather Service is predicting snow on Saturday, with up to an inch of accumulation during the evening hours.
It’s all part of a regional weather roller coaster that started with heavy rain Thursday, continued with the first February tornado ever recorded in southwestern Pennsylvania, and is expected to culminate with temperatures in the 70s next week.
The National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down in Uniontown, ripping roofs off homes, uprooting trees and downing utility poles.
The twister hit around 9 p.m., as torrential rain pounded the entire southwest Pennsylvania region.
The weather service gave the tornado an EF-1 rating, which has winds up to 105 mph. Twisters are given a rating on the Enhanced Fujita scale: An EF-0 tornado is considered the weakest rating, with winds from 65 to 85 mph; an EF-5 is the strongest, with winds over 200 mph.
According to the weather service, it was the “first recorded tornado in NWS Pittsburgh area of responsibility during February since 1950,” when the service began tracking such things.
“It was fairly unusual considering this was actually the first tornado we’ve had” in February, said Lee Hendricks, a weather service meteorologist in Pittsburgh. “It’s more of a typical thing you would see in the early spring rather than February.”
There were no reported injuries, but there was a near miss for a dog named Jake. The 6-year-old border collie mix was in Roy Zack’s garage in Uniontown when the tornado struck, tearing off the roof and collapsing the walls, but the dog was not injured.
A team of meteorologists visited the Uniontown area Friday to assess the damage and determine the path and exact strength of the