1 June 2018
Saturday is the 20th anniversary of the 2 June 1998 tornado that hit the City of Pittsburgh. Before that event many of us thought it was impossible for a tornado to touch down in the city limits. Hah!
Everyone who saw it has a story.
That day I was still at my desk around 6pm, gazing out the window as I talked on the phone with someone in Indianapolis. Though my office was more than three miles from the tornado I could see the storm’s approach as the sky got dark and the wind increased. I saw a crow fly into the wind but as hard as he flapped he went backwards. Uh oh!
I told the person on the phone, “I think a tornado is coming.” He said, “Don’t tell me about it. We have too many of those,” and he kept talking. Since the City of Pittsburgh had never had a tornado I figured it was OK to stay in my office but I dragged myself and the phone under my desk to continue the conversation away from the window.
Meanwhile, bad things were happening on Mt. Washington as Chuck and Joan Tague drove home across the Liberty Bridge. The worst of the storm missed their Chatham Village neighborhood but the roads were so blocked with fallen trees that they parked far away and walked home. The power was out for a very long time.
Chuck’s story is impressive! Click here or his photo below to read it.
We think of it as “the Mt. Washington tornado” but it also touched down in Carnegie and Hazelwood and traveled 32 miles before it dissipated. It was one of nine(*) tornadoes that hit our region that evening.
Read more about the Tornado Outbreak of June 2, 1998 here on the National Weather Service website, and in the Post-Gazette When Tornadoes Tormented the Pittsburgh Region. (* NWS confirmed 9 tornadoes; the P-G says there were 14!)
Do you have a memory from that day? Leave a comment with your story.
(small photos from the National Weather Service report on the June 2, 1998 tornado outbreak. Photo of tornado-downed tree in Chatham Village by Chuck Tague)
I worked at Station Square and was trying to get home that evening. It was no use putting up an umbrella. There were many of its kind trapped against the Smithfield Street Bridge torn apart and bent from the force of the rain. I was drenched down only one side of my body as the rain pummeled everyone as it flew parallel to the Mon River. I managed to catch my bus home to Munhall. My sister and I ran down to the local fast food establishment to grab a quick dinner when it was broadcast on the TV of a tornado hitting Mt. Washington. The next day, as I walked back to work across the bridge, the evidence of the storm was scattered all along the bridge. I scanned the hillside and viewed the tattered and torn rooftops of the buildings along the cliff. I could only imagine what the residents had to contend with on that hill.
Wow! It must have been scary to be out in it!
My trip was from Oakland to Wildwood (just east of North Park), by bus. The trip downtown was uneventful except for the lightning appearing ever closer, but the trip up McKnight was incredible. One-inch hail hitting the roof of the bus sounded like artillery fire. I pity the poor people who had to get off about then. By the time I got to the gymnastics show my kids were performing in, I knew about the tornado. I looked at the hundreds of little winged trophies lined up on shelves and thought, if another tornado hit this place, we’d be slaughtered as much by flying trophies as shards of glass and brick from the building.
I grew up in Ohio and had only been in Pittsburgh for about 2 years. I thought it was crazy that Pittsburgh didn’t have the same tornado warning system that Ohio has, but folks who grew up here told me it was because Pittsburgh didn’t get tornadoes. On that day I was at the Grand Concourse for a going away party. As we waited for our meal I could see the stormy weather out the window and the sky turn greenish. I started to get nervous. Then I saw the wind circulating with debris as it moved past the window and the Smithfield Street bridge. I started to really get scared and I said to my coworker next to me that I thought it was a tornado but she said “No, Pittsburgh doesn’t gets tornadoes it is just a storm” and looking at everyone else in the restaurant just going along eating their meal like nothing was happening, and I reasoned with myself that surely the restaurant had a radio or TV somewhere and would alert us if there was significant danger (this was before the prevalence of cell phones so no instant weather alerts at that time). When I got to my car and turned the radio on, that is when I found out that what I had seen was the bottom of the tornado that hit Mt. Washington and that more were happening elsewhere. I still shake my head about that day and thank God that it hadn’t been stronger.
2 tornado stories:
When I was a child there was an odd weather event here in Pittsburgh. The aftermath looked like tornado damage, but that couldn’t be true because “Pittsburgh doesn’t get tornadoes”. It was officially called a “tornadic storm”.
My husband is a structural engineer. About 20 years ago he was called to do an inspection and report on a house after the Mt. Washington tornado. The insurance company didn’t want to pay because their investigator didn’t see any damage. I typed husband’s report. The house had been lifted completely off of its foundation and then dropped back exactly into position. Nothing wrong except that it was no longer attached to the ground. There WAS something to be seen: “In one of the bedrooms there is a green plant growing up the wall”.
My son’s HS graduation was scheduled outdoors for the evening of June 2. Needless to say it was postponed until the next day. I have video of the wind and storm in our Churchill neighborhood. I looked out my dining room door and the porch furniture and grill were stacked up into the center of the porch like a set of pickup sticks. The porch has a roof and always acts as a wind tunnel but the wind picking up the furniture and grill was astonishing!
I worked in the USX Tower on the 53rd floor back in 1998. I glanced out the windows and couldn’t believe that I was seeing a tornado coming down the Ohio. I yelled for my boss to join me. We were getting ready to go to the center of the building when it veered up to Mt. Washington. I doubt I’ll ever forget this event.