Severe Storms Again, 30 Years After PA's Unlucky Day

Severe weather hit the state of Pennsylvania yesterday, 30 years to the day after the biggest tornado outbreak in the state's history (1985). I've blogged before about Pennsylvania's unlucky May 31, also the date to the big flood in Johnstown in 1889, and a severe weather outbreak in 1998 (my first year here in the state), so I'll concentrate this blog on yesterday's thunderstorms.

Residents of Mercer County, Pennsylvania (which saw the state's only F5 tornado on May 31, 1985) got quite a scare when they saw this cloud yesterday:

That was taken in Sharon, Pennsylvania, by Pati Hosey. In nearby Hermitage, a car was flipped and damage was done at a Sheetz. The NWS said this afternoon that it was a tornado.

Almost as impressive, this AccuCam webcam image (from Multicomm, Inc.) showed the huge storms dumping rain on Altoona.

Further east, flooding was rampant, as you can see from this 24-hour precip image:

Over 16,000 lightning strikes were detected; dozens of severe thunderstorm warnings were issued, and spotter reports were many.