Extreme weather tears through Fayette, Greene counties
Courtesy of Tyler Fridley
Courtesy of Tyler Fridley
Hail at least 2 inches wide rained down on Claysville Saturday night, as severe weather stormed through the area. A tornado touched down in nearby Prosperity, causing damage to several houses, barns and sheds.
Courtesy of Phil Conklin
The tornado that tore through Prosperity Saturday night ripped part of the roof off Phil Conklin’s garage, carrying the metal about 200 feet, Conklin said. He said he is fortunate there was no damage to his home or barn.
Trees were cracked, sheared and uprooted in Morris Township Saturday evening, when a tornado ripped through a portion of Prosperity. Phil Conklin took this photo of a snapped tree after the storm passed at his property along Prosperity Pike. (Photo courtesy of Phil Conklin)
Courtesy of Phil Conklin
Roofing and equipment are scattered about Phil Conklin’s Prosperity Pike property, after a tornado that ripped through Washington County caused damage in East Finley and Morris Township.
Courtesy of Phil Conklin
Courtesy of Phil Conklin
Part of Phil Conklin’s split-rail fence along his Prosperity Pike property was damaged after a tornado Saturday night caused damage to the fence, the garage, sheds and beehives.
The tops of trees were stripped off trunks along S Bridge Road in Prosperity when extreme weather rolled through Saturday evening. Local roads were blocked by felled trees and several homes in the area sustained minor to major damage. (Photo courtesy of Dave Dietrich)
Courtesy of Dave Dietrich
Remnant sof a porch are strewn about the backyard of a residence along Cracraft Road in Claysville, after a tornado that touched down in South Franklin Township made its way through the area.
The aftermath of Saturday's tornado at property owned by Brieanna Gadani along Farmers Lane in Prosperity
Ed Riedmann/For the Herald-Standard
Ed Riedmann/For the Herald-Standard
A tornado that ripped through Prosperity caused extensive damage to property owned by Brieanna Gadani along Farmers Lane.
Extreme weather caused damage throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania Saturday evening, when a tornado touched down in Washington County, and that storm then rolled through Fayette County.
The National Weather Service Pittsburgh confirmed Sunday that a category EF-1 tornado touched down in South Franklin Township on Saturday evening.
Wind speeds reached 105 miles per hour, according to the NWS Pittsburgh, whose more detailed report was not published at press time.
Though accounts of a tornado in Fayette County circulated on social media Sunday, the NWS Pittsburgh said the storm, part of the same cell the Washington County tornado formed from, was not a tornado.
“There was at least some damage in terms of trees down, nothing specifically related to a tornado,” said Jared Rackley, a meteorologist with the NWS Pittsburgh.
The storm cell moved from Washington County into Fayette, hitting the western part of the county, including Fairchance, Rackley said.
“The storm was pretty nasty,” said Gregory Crossley, coordinator of the Uniontown Emergency Mangement Agency. “It caused some damage to some of the booths at the Italian Festival. In the city, street flooding by Ben Franklin Junior High School, that’s something we get quite a bit when we have heavy rains. They had a good many trees down in German Township. I believe a mobile home was hit with a tree. I believe that was in German Township.”
Crossley said the storm seemed to hit the southern part of Uniontown the hardest. German Township Volunteer Fire Department could not be reached for comment by press time.
The Brownsville Drive-In sustained damage to screen 3 during the storms, but was operating as usual Sunday, showing movies only on screens 1 and 2, according to the drive-in theater’s Facebook page.
Greene County, too, received nasty weather Saturday. Rackley said the NWS Pittsburgh received reports of trees down in Carmichaels and Wind Ridge.
Parts of Washington County saw significant damage in Saturday’s storm, including South Franklin, where a tornado touched down. The South Franklin Volunteer Fire Department could not be reached for comment Sunday, and though the area sustained much damage, Prosperity and surrounding towns were hit hard, too.
“We have several houses that have damage, some minor, some major. A couple sheds and barns that were destroyed, and one home that is not livable at this time,” said Morris Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief Dave Dietrich. “We’ve got trees that are just sheared off 20 feet in the air, a group of them that are just sheared completely off.”
The Morris Township VFD is working to bring the Red Cross in to assist those who were impacted by Saturday’s tornado. The one home that was destroyed sits along Cracraft Road, and has a Claysville address. Damage to homes, barns and sheds took place along Prosperity Pike.
“We knew that there was bad weather. We could see a lot of lightning,” said Phil Conklin, a volunteer firefighter who lives along Prosperity Pike and watched the storm roll in with his family from the porch. “I videoed what appeared to be a funnel cloud that wasn’t reaching the ground. That was about 8:30. The wind started to pick up, then all of a sudden the wind blew really hard.”
The family moved into the basement. When they emerged, the usually well-maintained property was in disarray.
“Part of the roof was blown off the garage, trees blown down. You almost have to look at it to appreciate what happened,” Conklin said. “Parts of the shed were blown, oh, I don’t know, 200 feet before they landed. We have beehives; it just picked them up and scattered them. The wind blew so hard that the split-rail fence, the rails and half the post blew over and left half the post standing there. It’s hard to imagine the wind blowing so hard. We’re lucky we didn’t have any damage to the house or the barn.”
While the tornado touched down southeast of Claysville, hail the size of golfballs fell from the sky in that area.
Taylor Fridley, who lives in Claysville, said Saturday’s storm cast the world in an eerie green and storm clouds darted across the skies. His family stayed away from the windows – they don’t have a basement – and waited for the storm to pass.
“It was rolling thunder, pretty steady rain. For the most part, it looked like it was going to taper off. That was when the hail kicked off,” said Fridley. “I heard what I thought were branches hitting the side of the house.”
When he stepped outside, Fridley said, he saw “massive, massive hailstones … just raining down. I’ve never in my life seen anything like that.”
As quickly as the hailstorm began, he said, it stopped. When Fridley ventured outside to assess the damage, he was surprised to see only a few dents in the family’s cars and some scattered branches.
“Fortunately, it (the hailstorm) wasn’t too long of a duration,” Fridley said, adding he was grateful his home didn’t lose power.
The NWS Pittsburgh reported Saturday’s tornado was the 16th since 1950 to affect Washington County. Additional details, including how long the storm lasted, are forthcoming.
Before Saturday’s storms, there had not been any confirmed tornados in Washington or Fayette counties in 2023, according to Jason Frazier, a meteorologist with the NWS Pittsburgh.