2 tornadoes touch down Tuesday in Butler County
A tornado passing through Butler and Lawrence counties Tuesday may have looked dangerous, but it didn’t amount to much damage or calls for emergency services, according to fire chiefs and storm chasers in the area.
The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh confirmed a tornado touched down in the Portersville area around 8 p.m. Tuesday evening, July 21. The weather service sent representatives to the area Wednesday, who found signs of two EF-0 tornadoes east and west of Interstate 79, according to meteorologist David Shallenberger with the weather service. EF scale ratings are based on estimated wind speeds and related damage.
He said the eastern tornado touched down near Yellow Creek Road, and the western tornado touched down near Perry Highway. Exact wind speeds of the tornadoes were not available by 3 p.m. Wednesday.
Unionville Volunteer Fire Company Chief Mike Pflugh said his station had one call Tuesday night related to storm damage. A tree was hanging on wires around 9 p.m. in the area of 111 Lakeview Drive, he said.
“Very fortunately, we came out unscathed,” Pflugh said. “Usually, we get our butts handed to us like everyone else (in the area).”
Slippery Rock Volunteer Fire Company and Rescue Team Chief Ryan Hanchosky also said his company received little to no storm-related calls.
In Lawrence County, Slippery Rock Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief Charles Peak also said his station had no storm-related calls. His station is located off Route 422 near Lake Arthur Estates, which is the direction the tornado entered Butler County from.
“We were pretty fortunate,” Peak said.
Attempts to reach Portersville-Muddy Creek Township Volunteer Fire Department Chief Tim Saunders on Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Dean Berry, a contracted storm chaser who lives in Center Township, said he was about 150 feet from the tornado in photos he sent to the Butler Eagle. The photos were taken from a video filmed on his dashboard camera.
“It had a nice little jet at the bottom of it,” Berry said of the funnel cloud.
Berry said he’s been chasing storms around the country for about 30 years. On Tuesday night, he picked up the tornado near New Castle, and followed it on Route 422 East until he saw its center of rotation shift. He wound up on Bauder School Road.
Berry said the tornado looked weak. He said he saw it strike a house without lifting any debris. Most of the damage he saw was to treetops.
Berry did not come across any impassable roads while chasing the storm. He said he tried to stay just north or south of it to keep himself from getting blocked in.
Berry said for his entire life, he’s watched weather media and documentaries telling him there was no warning before the storm hit.
“There’s always warning,” he said.
He knew Tuesday would be “spicy” by Friday night, Berry said. He uses a variety of longterm, shortterm, public and private models to predict when a storm will hit a certain area and the path it’ll take.
“When you get into the range of two to three days (before the storm), the models get a lot more accurate,” Barry said.
After deciding where to catch the storm, the last step is preparation.
Berry has three vehicles he uses for storm chasing. One of them is designed to withstand hurricanes, and the other two are designed to handle general severe weather and large hail.
“They happen everywhere,” Berry said. “The prevalence appears to be popping up more and more.”
He films primarily on a Google Pixel phone and two other phones connected to dash cameras, he said. Berry also keeps extra batteries, power inverters, routers and if he needs it, Starlink, that keeps him from losing connection in rural areas.
“Pennsylvania has some very large cellular blackout zones where nobody has service,” Berry said. “That’s where satellite comes in handy.”
