National Weather Service confirms 2 tornadoes touched down in Beaver County

BEAVER COUNTY — Two tornadoes touched down in Beaver county early Saturday morning leaving behind a swath of damage and numerous power outages.

Fred McMullen, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the Pittsburgh National Weather Service office, says the first tornado touched down just after 6am about a mile east-northeast of Shippingsport. That tornado was an EF-0 tornado on the enhanced Fujita scale with winds of 85 mph. It cut a path almost a mile long and 50-yards wide bringing down numerous trees and tearing the roof off of a pavillon.

“We’re very fortunate that no trees fell on any homes, no one got injured and no one lost their life.  People got the message, they took action, and again that’s a winning formula for us,” explained McMullen.

A second, also short-lived, tornado touched down less than 10 minutes later a mile east-southeast of Monaca. This stronger, EF-1 tornado packed winds of 95 mph staying on the ground for nearly two miles uprooting dozens of trees along the way and damaging a mobile home. At one point the tornado was as wide a two football fields.

Tabbitha Tanner, who lives in Monaca, saw one of the two tornados that touched down.

“I screamed, I got back because the windows were shaking, I’m still a little shaken up from it,” she said. “I’m watching out my window and all of a sudden like, out of nowhere, I see from maybe you to me, like nothing, like I don’t see nothing in front of me.”

These are the 19th and 20th recorded tornadoes in Beaver county since records have been kept in 1950. “It’s a little bit chilly out here.  I’m not sure how many houses are without power.  Hopefully the power gets back on soon,” Tanner said.

These are the 19th and 20th tornado since 1950 to be observed.

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