June 23, 1944 Appalachian Outbreak

Per Significant Tornadoes:  “What was probably a family of tornadoes moved southeast from Wellsburg, West Virginia, across the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, to the northwest corner of Maryland.  At Wellsburg, 20 homes were unroofed and one girl died from serious injuries on a farm outside of town.  In Pennsylvania, four people died in Washington County; two in Independence Township, and two more north of Claysville.  A near tragedy was averted a few miles further southwest when a summer YMCA camp was leveled.  The children had been led from the dining hall and told to lie flat on the ground in the shelter of a knoll.  A letter written by one of the children was carried 100 miles.

In Greene County, the tornado intensified and leveled many of the homes it encountered in the next 15 miles, killing 22 people.  Three died as the Castile community was destroyed, 10 died as 53 small homes were destroyed at the coal mining community of Chartiers, one mile south of Clarksville, and eight were killed at Dry Tavern, three miles further to the southeast.  In Fayette County, the funnel passed eight miles southwest of Uniontown, near Smithville, injuring at least 21 people.  It probably dissipated and re-formed, or moved across and perpendicular to the Appalachian mountain ridges. About 86 homes were destroyed in Pennsylvania.  Observers at Uniontown reported that debris fell from the sky 35 minutes before the tornado arrived.

The tornado family may have been aloft as it crossed into Preston County, West Virginia. Ten people were injured as four homes were destroyed there. In Garrett County, Maryland, three people were killed and 25 were injured as seven homes were destroyed two miles north of Oakland.”

Per a Weather Bureau summary entitled, “Tornadoes of June 23, 1944 in Maryland, Eastern Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia”: At Chartiers, the tornado threw vehicles up to 200 yards away, some were wrapped around debarked trees.  In Smithfield, several homes and farms were completely destroyed.

From the same article, at Deer Park, “Several observers slated that the funnel clouds were often completely detached from the cumulus clouds and would disintegrate as they progressed forward, disappearing on the ground and reappearing farther along the path.  Funnel clouds had the appearance of an elephant’s trunk that tended to dip to the ground at intervals.”  This is an indication that the tornado was a multiple vortex tornado.

As of the time of writing, this is the deadliest tornado in the State of Pennsylvania, with 26 fatalities.