Tornado

Parts of Maugansville were filled by the buzzing sounds of chainsaws and wood chippers Wednesday morning as private contractors, residents and Washington County road crews cleaned up the aftermath of an overnight tornado that uprooted trees and toppled a trailer in a driveway. The National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday afternoon that a 200-yard-wide tornado passed through the area from 8:10 to 8:15 p.m. The estimated maximum wind speed was 90 to 100 mph. Daisy Drive resident Eileen Felton said she and her husband were watching television Tuesday night when they heard the storm brewing outside.

Today: Mostly sunny. Highs will be in the upper 30s. Tonight: Increasing cloudiness with a 40 percent chance of snow towards morning. Lows will be in the low to mid-20s. Thursday: Snow. Highs will be around 30. Friday: A chance of snow. Highs will be in the 30s. Saturday: Partly cloudy and cold. Highs will be in the mid-20s to mid-30s. Sunday: Partly cloudy and cold. Highs will be in the 20s to low 30s.

Goodness, another day, another tornado. When did Hagerstown turn into Kansas all of a sudden? Who do we look like, Auntie Em? All last week people right and left were claiming to see funnel clouds. But this is Washington County, I thought. We have mountains that I've always been taught prevent tornadoes. Maybe they mean they saw funnel cakes. All I can figure is that one of the cloud seeders went bad. He's up there in his single-engine Cessna seeding the clouds with Pop Rocks.

marlob@herald-mail.com TRI-STATE -A storm packing high winds, heavy rain, thunder and lightning spawned several tornadoes in the Tri-State area Friday evening, according to emergency officials and a number of residents who snapped pictures of funnel clouds touching down. The National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., confirmed a tornado moving north through Frederick County, Md., around 6 p.m.; one in Greencastle, Pa., at about 7:15 p.m.; and another near Berkeley Springs, W.Va.

A tornado with winds reaching 85 mph struck Franklin County, Pa., on Sunday afternoon, National Weather Service officials confirmed Monday. The path of the tornado was about six miles long and 100 yards wide. Investigators believe it moved forward with a speed of 35 mph. The tornado has been classified as an EF0, the weakest on the measurement scale, according to Craig Evanego, a meteorologist based in State College, Pa. The tornado that occurred from about 1:56 to 2:07 p.m. Sunday traveled off Williamsport Pike in the Greencastle area.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com MONT ALTO, Pa. - Dart night at the Chaparral Tavern, a saloon on Anthony Highway, turned romantic Tuesday night when candlelight replaced electric lights when the power went out. "We were pretty full when the lights went out," said Eddie Stine, owner of the Chaparral at 6880 Anthony Highway (Pa. 997). High winds that blew through the area were believed by some residents to be a tornado, but a National Weather Service emergency manager who checked for damage Wednesday morning discounted those reports.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - Sunday's thunderstorms did not produce a tornado, according to a press release from the National Weather Service. Witnesses said the funnel cloud they saw did not touch the ground, according to Bruce Budd with the weather service. Instead, downburst or straight-line winds tipped over portable sheds and damaged the roofs of two buildings at Letterkenny Army Depot, Budd said. The Franklin County (Pa.) Emergency Management Agency conducted the investigation for the National Weather Service.

Faye Stouffer waited inside Sunday while a storm roared outside, eventually ripping an antenna off her home and toppling a tree in her yard. Officials said the storm might have produced a tornado. “All of a sudden, (there was) one big noise, and wind took everything. It was sort of like a train sound or roar,” said Stouffer, of 1301 Preston Lane. The National Weather Service in State College, Pa., was expected to send a meteorologist to the site sometime Monday,  meteorologist Elyse Colbert said Monday morning.

by RICHARD T. MEAGHER / staff photographer click image for enlargement Powerful storms that ripped through the Tri-State area Tuesday night spawned at least three tornadoes with winds up to 100 mph, meteorologists at the National Weather Service said. --cont from front page -- No one was seriously injured or left homeless by the storms that toppled trees and power lines, and ripped off roofs. Some businesses and residents in the area were still without electricity Wednesday night, but Allegheny Power spokeswoman Midge Teahan said most power would be restored by this morning.

A severe storm that passed through Jefferson County last Wednesday and caused some residents to take cover was not a tornado, a National Weather Service spokesman said Sunday night. Instead, the storm generated "straight-line winds" that were clocked between 70 mph and 90 mph, said meteorologist Chris Strong. A report on the storm can be viewed at the National Weather Service's Web site at www.erh.noaa.gov. The storm struck in mid-afternoon Wednesday, causing significant damage, especially in Ranson, W.Va.

A tornado watch remained in effect in Washington County and other parts of the Tri-State area Tuesday as a cold front accompanied by heavy rain moved through the region. The watch, affecting Washington and Frederick counties as well as Morgan, Berkeley and Jefferson counties in West Virginia, is in effect through 7 p.m., the National Weather Service reported. Southern Washington County is under a flash flood warning until 4:45 p.m. Southern Washington County and parts of Frederick and Jefferson counties were under a severe thunderstorm warning effective until 1:30 p.m., the weather service reported.

There were several calls to Washington County emergency communications of possible funnel-cloud sightings when a line of fast-moving storms moved through the county Saturday, but none were confirmed as tornadoes as of Saturday night by the National Weather Service. The center received about five calls about funnel-cloud sightings Saturday afternoon, a 911 dispatcher said Saturday night. Howard Silverman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., said none were confirmed within its region, which includes much of Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia.

Faye Stouffer waited inside Sunday while a storm roared outside, eventually ripping an antenna off her home and toppling a tree in her yard. Officials said the storm might have produced a tornado. “All of a sudden, (there was) one big noise, and wind took everything. It was sort of like a train sound or roar,” said Stouffer, of 1301 Preston Lane. The National Weather Service in State College, Pa., was expected to send a meteorologist to the site sometime Monday,  meteorologist Elyse Colbert said Monday morning.

A tornado with winds reaching 85 mph struck Franklin County, Pa., on Sunday afternoon, National Weather Service officials confirmed Monday. The path of the tornado was about six miles long and 100 yards wide. Investigators believe it moved forward with a speed of 35 mph. The tornado has been classified as an EF0, the weakest on the measurement scale, according to Craig Evanego, a meteorologist based in State College, Pa. The tornado that occurred from about 1:56 to 2:07 p.m. Sunday traveled off Williamsport Pike in the Greencastle area.

Washington County and all neighboring counties in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia are under a tornado watch, effective until 9 p.m. Friday, the National Weather Service announced at 1:30 p.m. The NWS forecast for Hagerstown  called for showers and a chance of thuderstorms Friday afternoon and evening. Some storms could be severe, with gusty winds and heavy rain, the weather service said. Portions of Frederick County, Md., were under a tornado warning from about 2:30 p.m. until 3 p.m. after a storm capable of producing a tornado moved thorugh the Mount Airy area.

Severe thunderstorms continued to pound the area Friday evening, just hours after residents began cleaning up damage from Thursday's line of storms. "I saw the lightning hit the telephone pole by my house," Philip Hebb of Englewood Road said Friday night. "There is a big tree that blew down, and it's laying on my shed. " The slow-moving system of severe thunderstorms that ravaged the Midwest and parts of the South continued moving through the Tri-State area Friday, bringing damaging winds and the threat of hail, said Kevin Witt, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va. Witt warned on Thursday that the area was "not out of the woods just yet. " He said Friday that the "main event" from the storm system was still expected to make its way to Washington County sometime Saturday, likely in the late morning or early afternoon.

The National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado with wind speeds of 90 mph touched down in New Franklin on Thursday night. A meteorologist from the weather service in State College, Pa., assessed the damage in Franklin County Friday and concluded that a tornado touched down at 6:10 p.m. on Thursday. Tony Mach of the weather service said the twister was rated an EF-1 on the enhanced Fujita scale, with wind speeds of 86-110 mph. The scale ranges from an EF-0 with wind speeds from 65 to 85 mph to an EF-5, with wind speeds greater than 200 mph, Mach said.

The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for Franklin and Fulton counties in Pennsylvania, effective through 10 p.m. Thursday. The watch is in effect for multiple counties across the state and was issued from the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. Strong thunderstorms are expected to affect Washington County on Thursday afternoon, the weather service said. A strong thunderstorm was indicated 3 miles northwest of Hillsboro, Va. and was moving northeast at 25 mph, the service said.

Tornado warnings had area residents taking cover Thursday evening as a train of severe thunderstorms rumbled through the Tri-State area, causing power outages and flash flooding. And today could prove just as scary, with more thunderstorms, some potentially severe, forecast to come this way, a National Weather Service spokesman said. No twisters were reported to have touched down Thursday, but in Franklin and Fulton counties (Pa.), a tornado warning remained in effect until about 7 p.m., and a tornado watch remained in effect until 10 p.m., the National Weather Service said.

Parts of Maugansville were filled by the buzzing sounds of chainsaws and wood chippers Wednesday morning as private contractors, residents and Washington County road crews cleaned up the aftermath of an overnight tornado that uprooted trees and toppled a trailer in a driveway. The National Weather Service confirmed Wednesday afternoon that a 200-yard-wide tornado passed through the area from 8:10 to 8:15 p.m. The estimated maximum wind speed was 90 to 100 mph. Daisy Drive resident Eileen Felton said she and her husband were watching television Tuesday night when they heard the storm brewing outside.