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NOT A TORNADO? Although no official determination was made or announced this week, photographic evidence of the weather events of Feb. 6 seem to indicate the possible touch-down of a tornado, or at least a "micro-burst," in Garrett County that evening. In this aerial photo of the Youghiogheny Mountain Resort (YMR) area, taken by Bob Browning, rows of large trees are shown clearly uprooted. Browning said from the air, it looked as if the powerful wind, or probable tornado, touched down at the northeast corner of the YMR, went across the Youghiogheny River, and over Oakland-Sang Run Road, and then touched down again near the Garrett County Airport, and again about three miles beyond the airport toward Grantsville. Browning took several photographs of severe damage to forestland throughout this area.

DSC00921, originally uploaded by deepcreeklocal.

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After turning on WKHJ in the morning on Thursday, I heard that a tornado (it was later determined to be a 'downburst') had touched down on Oakland Sang Run Rd from the storms the night before. It's not every day that this happens in Garrett County, so I jumped in my car to see what had happened.

It brought back memories for me, as some friends of mine and I had searched for remnants of a tornado many years earlier. I think it was 1999 or 2000, but a tornado had touched down near the Garrett County airport (among other places) and we were driving up to check on my friends airplane. When we got to the entrance fo the airport, there were 3 or 4 huge trees down, blocking the road. We climbed over the trees and walked up to the runway. Had I not seen this, I never would have believed it:

As we walked up to runway, there was a Cessna chained down to the asphalt. In the middle of the wing, there was a twig - not a stick or a branch - but a twig that had been 'pushed' through 2 feet or so of the fiberglass wing on the airplane. It was quite a sight, and it was inconveniently before time were digital cameras were prevalent, so I have no photos. Anyway, seeing that I have credentials as a day-after 'tornado chaser', I was anxious to see what happened near the Wisp Ski Resort.

As you can see from the photos, whatever it was was powerful enough to break off these mature trees near mid-trunk. Thankfully, the damage was not extensive and there were no major injuries, but it doesn't really compare to the fallout from the tornado in 1999/2000.