3/23/11 storms (Greensburg, Latrobe, Beaver: house, high school, tornado) - Pittsburgh - Pennsylvania (PA) - City-Data Forum

greg42 · 03-23-2011, 07:09 PM

In some ways I hesitate to create another thread that is even remotely related to weather, and yet with the strong storms today I'm kinda surprised no one has brought it up yet.

There is damage in Westmoreland County from a suspected tornado. Everyone okay out there?

Anyone in the city area between 4-5:00 see the hail? Twice?

I left my office at 5:00 and walked several minutes underground (since it was raining) to the garage then when I got upstairs to my car it looked more like about 8:00, so dark! Then when I reached the exit of the garage, it was hailing again. (The first round of hail I watched out the office window, bouncing off stuff. Fairly small though, around pea or M&M size.) Mostly eased up on the drive north and everything up here looked okay.

I was thinking "It's only March, not July." Seemed like a midsummer type storm.

youngabe · 03-23-2011, 07:33 PM

From my office, I wasn't too concerned, it just looked like a regular thunderstorm. I couldn't get over the darkness though--it was bizarre. Then it died down and got considerably brighter. The next round that moved in right around 5...the darkness came back with it. I was leaving the parking garage, sitting at the light to turn out of Station Square and I seriously panicked for a minute--I thought someone was throwing things at my vehicle! Then, I noticed the giant white chunks laying all around. I would go as far to say I saw a few almost the size of a tennis ball on East Carson. I have never seen hail like that ever. I actually came home and checked my vehicle for damage...I still don't know how I don't have significant dents.

BrianTH · 03-23-2011, 07:48 PM

We've got a chunk of hail sitting in the freezer, courtesy of our five-year-old. That was pretty crazy.

SteelCityRising · 03-23-2011, 07:54 PM

I was driving up South Braddock Avenue in Regent Square about to turn left onto Wilkins Avenue when the skies opened up. The hail was extraordinary, and there was immense ponding on the roadways.

ditchdigger · 03-23-2011, 07:56 PM

I understand there was actually a tornado around Greensburg. Supposedly somebody posted pictures on one of the TV station websites.

I was sitting in the normal afternoon traffic in the bathtub area of the Parkway East while it was hailing. I'd call it pea-sized there for the most part. Had another good storm by the time I'd driven back here to Beaver County.

Impala26 · 03-23-2011, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BrianTH

We've got a chunk of hail sitting in the freezer, courtesy of our five-year-old. That was pretty crazy.

Haha, I managed to scoop up three near-golf-ball-sized hail pieces and do the exact same thing. I've never seen hail so large, in person anyway. The really big hail fell for only about a minute or two on the leading edge of the second storm cell just after 5pm here in South Oakland.

SteelCityRising · 03-23-2011, 09:12 PM

I would really love to hear from member "hempfield mania". I'm watching KDKA right now, and there was a definite tornado that did massive damage in Hempfield Twp. I hope he/she is okay. It looks like the high school had its roof torn off, the stadium was heavily damaged, and a nearby suburban subdivision was nearly flattened. It looks like Arona Road, Monkey Wrench Road, Edna Road, and Fosterville Road were the hardest hit areas. The National Weather Service won't confirm that it was indeed a tornado, but that sort of damage coupled with numerous reports of a large funnel cloud would indicate to me that this would be at least an EF2 tornado.

hempfield mania · 03-23-2011, 09:19 PM

Thanks for the thoughts Steel..
The tornado touched down 1/2 mile from my house. I was on my way home from work and told my wife and kids to get in the basement when she was on the phone with me and told me there was golf ball size hail hitting all around.
One of my co-workers lives on Monkey Wrench so I'll get a detailed report from him tomorrow if he makes it in. Several dozen homes were heavily damaged or destroyed but amazingly, there were no serious injuries reported. Say a prayer for those folks that had their homes affected this afternoon. We finally got out power back on around 9pm but some areas won't have power until this weekend (at least what Allegheny/FirstEnergy said on their msg).

Several of the local farmers and a local greenhouse right down the road from me lost everything.

Drover · 03-23-2011, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greg42

In some ways I hesitate to create another thread that is even remotely related to weather, and yet with the strong storms today I'm kinda surprised no one has brought it up yet.

There is damage in Westmoreland County from a suspected tornado. Everyone okay out there?

Nothing "suspected" about it -- it was the real thing. They even showed footage of it on the news out here. It was a pretty good-sized one too, not one of those teeny little straws that dips down to the earth, sips up a bit of dirt, and then retreats.

ML North · 03-23-2011, 09:45 PM

I was traveling to Latrobe around 6PM. My granparents live about a 6-iron away from Hempfield high school so I stopped by their house to check in. Fortunately, they were safe, but it was definitely an unfamiliar scene in Western PA.