A tornado with winds reaching 105 mph ripped through Pittsburgh's Highland Park neighborhood, uprooting trees and ravaging the local zoo area, as confirmed by the National Weather Service (NWS). The EF1 tornado damaged property around the Pittsburgh Zoo and Allegheny River Boulevard late Friday afternoon. It was part of a series of three tornadoes that barreled through parts of Allegheny, Washington, and Westmoreland counties, NWS meteorologist Rich Redmond reported to TribLIVE.
Surveyor Matthew Kramer, speaking with KDKA-TV, noted the lack of structural harm but several, snapped trees and limbs. The damage trail initiated in Morningside, wove its way through Highland Park including the zoo, and even crossed Route 8, said Kramer. Amid the chaos of rush hour, the tornado could have endangered vehicles, though no injuries were reported.
The tumultuous weather event was particularly unusual given that early Friday atmospheric conditions hadn't suggested an impending threat of tornadoes. Doppler radar, however, did pick up some weak rotation near Thomas in North Strabane, grounds a few miles west of Elrama where another tornado touched down before 3 p.m. The gathered storm cells intensified and gave birth to the tornadoes that afternoon, explained Redmond during interviews collected by TribLIVE.
A fourth tornado was also confirmed by the NWS in the region, as reported by WTAE. This tornado, like the one in Highland Park, was classified as an EF1, and although smaller in scale and lacking lightning, it brought with it significant rainfall and damaged trees and infrastructure near the Allegheny River and Highland Park Bridge. In stark visibility, a viewer provided a photo of a large tree that had collapsed in the parking lot of the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium.
Witnesses to the devouring spiral have been urged by the NWS to report any tornado-induced damage online. Further, NWS meteorologists plan to investigate to confirm whether the funnel cloud reported moving from Trafford to Harrison City delivered on its ominous potential for destruction, as reported by TribLIVE.
