National Weather Service confirms 2 tornadoes touched down during storms

Two tornadoes touched down during storms Monday in the region, according to the National Weather Service’s Moon office.

The twisters were confirmed Tuesday in Greene County and near the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

They were the second and third confirmed tornadoes in the Pittsburgh office’s coverage area, which includes parts of Ohio and West Virginia, for 2022. That comes a year after a record-setting 28 twisters swept through the region.

The first tornado touched down just after 7 p.m. and was on the ground for four minutes with winds up to 120 mph, giving it an EF2 rating. The twister traveled about 1.75 miles from West Virginia into Washington County. The damage was significant — trees were snapped at the trunk, a barn and camper were destroyed and another barn and church had their roofs ripped off, according to investigators with the weather service.

[Fixed graphic] As stated earlier, two tornadoes were found by our survey teams today. Here are preliminary details on both. Text statement here: https://t.co/sprvSLGnSg pic.twitter.com/zYXx9LvWu9

— NWS Pittsburgh (@NWSPittsburgh) August 2, 2022

The Greene County tornado was on the ground for about six minutes in a rural area near Graysville, west of Waynesburg. Over 1.2 miles, the twister uprooted trees, caused a barn to collapse and flipped over a camper. The estimated peak wind was 85 mph and the tornado was rated an EF0.

Before 2021 broke the record with 28 twisters, the previous record was set in 1990 with 17. The annual average is between four and six.

Between 1999 and 2016, there were no more than nine tornadoes in the region in any single year, with zero in both 1999 and 2009. There were 16 in 2017, the third highest total. There were 12 tornadoes in 2018, 13 in 2019 and 10 in 2020.