Submitted by Rusty Karnes of Parker
A fast-moving storm that rained hail and toppled trees and power lines in northern Butler County Thursday might have been a downburst.
The storm uprooted trees that knocked down power lines, but didn’t damage houses in a narrow swath through the area of McKee Road in Allegheny Township, said Rusty Karnes of Parker.
He said he helped volunteer firefighter cut the fallen trees that blocked McKee Road, where his father lives, and commended firefighters for quickly responding. Power was restored to most residents Thursday night, he added.
As of Friday morning, Central Electric Cooperative reported 13 customers in the county remained without power, and West Penn Power reported 16 customers without power.
“You couldn’t get up McKee Road. Most of those roads had trees over them. You couldn’t access them. It uprooted many trees,” Karnes said.
He said the storm began about 4:15 p.m. and lasted only 15 to 20 minutes. In that brief time, he said it created a lot of damage in a swath about 100 feet wide mostly in a wooded area.
“Trees kept falling. Uprooted trees were laying on other trees. They kept falling well into last night. It was pretty wild. I’ve never seen anything that bad,” Karnes said.
The storm also produced hail that Karnes said left small dents in the roof of his pick-up truck as he was driving to his father’s house.
“I really thought we were going to see a tornado. It had to be a microburst,” he said.
The storm, which skimmed Cherry Valley, Eau Claire and continued east into Armstrong County, collapsed and possibly resulted in a downburst, said Colton Milcarek, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh.
A downburst occurs when a storm with downward winds collapses and forces the wind spread outward, Milcarek said. He compared it to a splash from something dropped in water.
“Winds that were going down got redirected,” Milcarek said.
The forecast for the weekend calls for dry weather with temperatures in the 70s, he said.
