In addition to the Newton Falls-Niles tornado, other somewhat weaker tornadoes affected the counties in Northeast Ohio. Pennsylvania, one day after a tornado struck May 31, 1985, killing 12 people and leaving 25 missing. Each year, more than 2,000tornadoes are recorded worldwide, with the vast majority occurring in North America and Europe. The Allegheny National Forest experienced a large amount of valuable timber loss from these two tornadoes. Another was carried for 200yd (600ft). Rescuers from the Shenango Valley were dispatched north. With vast landmasses beneath subtropical, moisture-laden air surging from the Gulf of Mexico and its polar opposite sagging from Canada, the United States is a world capital of tornadoes. I'll never forget all the sirens going off as it was hitting. At any rate, the first storms associated with the outbreak in the United States formed just before our shift began on the 31st. Several F2 and one F1 tornado were also reported. If the mobile home or caravan isn't well-secured, it might not even turn it over. That went on continuously for many hours. I worked 3-11 shift at the local hospital in Greenville PA. And Im sure the carpet cleaning crew wondered why the weather station was so busy on a Friday night in between semesters. The Ohio-Pennsylvania Tornadoes of May 31, 1985. As McKean County was put under a tornado warning, I remember broadcasting with more urgency in my voice than ever before that this was not a typical tornado warning. European Severe Storms Laboratory). We lifted off and the tornados path of destruction was easy to follow from the air. Along the right hand side is a list of many of the parameters calculated from the sounding data, including CAPE and LI, that are used to predict thunderstorm occurrence and potential strength. It was in the early evening on thatFridaynight and I was at a friends house when we noticed that the sky had gotten very dark and the wind had increased dramatically. Eventually the storm debris was cleared away, insurance claims were paid and homes, businesses and shattered lives were rebuilt. I heard a rumor. Thinking that someone might need help, we circled over the area for several minutes trying to locate someone but were never able to find anyone. Like about everything else these days, tornadoes are behaving somewhat peculiarly, said Brooks, and that might be related to climate change, but they are directing some of that toward guarding their secrets. For more recent tornadoes, clicking. A small frame house was also destroyed with its foundation clean. May 31, 1985 Tornado Outbreak: 34th Anniversary. I can also remember all the tornado warnings that were issued for the area as the storms moved in. The outbreak continued east across north central Pennsylvania through late evening. Wikimedia Commons. She drove the mower back into the garage and I took off in the car. State College, PA328 Innovation Blvd, Suite 330State College, PA 16803(814)954-6440Comments? A carport was carried intact to the north while the rest of the house was destroyed with the foundation swept clean. I never saw such yellow, greenish tint to the sky as I did that day. Anthony W. Lyza, Barrett T. Goudeau, Kevin R. Knupp, Many "well built" homes were leveled and farms vanished. At least 24 people died after this powerful twister devastated the . A colleague who was watching the radar with him recalled hearing Forbes say: People are dying right now.. EMA Response & Technology of the Day, The 1985 Tornado Outbreak Revisited, Forecast Twenty-one tornadoes tracked across Northeast Ohio and Northwest Pennsylvania during the evening of May 31st. Tales of being in their homes or yards and having little time to react. From that day on, my career path began to move towards Meteorology. F5 tornadoes were estimated to have had maximum winds between 261mph (420km/h) and 318mph (512km/h). Three farms were obliterated, with all buildings and several inches of topsoil swept away. Later in the day I drove to as many areas as I could to see the destruction first hand and to meet with people and offer comfort and assure them that the state would do all it could to assist them. The tornado near Kinsman (Trumbull County) was produced by the parent thunderstorm that later spawned the deadly Atlantic tornado in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. On this date 35 years ago, the deadliest tornado outbreak in the states history cut through the heartland of Pennsylvania, killed 64 people, and spawned the states only F5 tornado on record, with peak winds better than 200 mph. According to Sleptzoff & Dunkle (2009), on June 1st, the Governor of Pennsylvania asked for federal relief to help with the damage left by the May 31st tornado outbreak. Jamestown, Wheatland, Niles Oh. The following diagrams, called soundings, show the amount of instability in the atmosphere that afternoon. Acres of ground were "swept bare" in some parts of town. Tragically, these tornadoes killed 66 people in Ohio and Pennsylvania. FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE WARNINGS. NWS He tried to drive them to safety, but when he couldnt get out of the path of the tornado, he pushed the children into a ditch and sheltered them with his body. This view is looking southwest from Broadway and Fruit avenues at the Wheatland-Farrell line. To this day, it is the most vivid lighting display I have ever seen (in person) even after almost 30 years as a meteorologist in the National Weather Service. Retrieved from: https://www.weather.gov/media/cle/Wx_Events/85outbreak/1985%20Tornado%20Final%5B1%5D.pdfNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (2019). Later in the afternoon the skies looked very eerie. Some Midwestern counties have populations as low as one person per mile. The orange shading in the following 850 mb chart (from Markowski) shows where winds were greater than 40Kts (46MPH). Tornado track of tornado outbreak on May 31, 1985 (NWS, 2019). Six hundred buildings were destroyed, and some areas were swept clean of all debris. Many of the structures were reduced to bare foundations, leaving "no trace of lumber or contents." My parents were very upset since phone lines were down and they couldn't reach me. The storms claimed 88 lives, injured more than 1,000 people and caused an estimated $550 million damage. We heard on the radio and television that there were tornado warnings for all of northwestern Pennsylvania as tornadoes were spotted in several areas moving from the west toward the east. This tornado is only listed as an F5 by the NCDC Technical Memorandum, and is not listed at all by Grazulis or any other sources, and is therefore a possible typographical error in the memorandum. Many large stone buildings were flattened. So in twenty minutes we went from no echoes on the radars to two tornadoes. The Tri-State Tornado of March 25, 1925. So many heroes. Aviation An EF5 tornado is the strongest designation a tornado can receive. You have permission to edit this article. Well-built homes were swept away in four counties with F5 damage in the town of Pomeroy. I served as assistant forecaster to lead forecaster Rich Anthony (now retired). This tornado is listed as only F3 in the official database. There is a day, a week and beyond that had a profound effect on my life and has forever changed me. Exceptionally rare, these tornadoes can produce wind speeds higher than 200 mph. Today a new plaque was dedicated in the plaza where many of them were killed. Videos courtesy of Henry Margusity and Jesse Ferrell, Accuweather Meteorologists. My primary job, besides helping with the placement and issuance of tornado and severe thunderstorm watches, was to manually log severe weather reports into the SELS database. Apparently too many came into the small Penn State radar room to witness weather history because the room got so hot that radar overheated and shut down about the time the Moshannon tornado was ending. This tornado reportedly left more intense damage than the previous event did in Woodward. We knew we had windsbacking with height from southeast to southwest aloft and increasing with height. 4:25 PM EDT FRI MAY 31 1985, ATHE NATIONAL SEVERE STORMS FORECAST CENTERHAS ISSUED A TORNADO WATCH FOR In Ohio, this was the worst event since the April 3-4th, 1974 outbreak that killed thirty-seven in Xenia. Below is a collection taken from the NWS Cleveland, OH archive for this event, unless otherwise stated, these pictures are courtesy of Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) District 4: Collection of newspaper clippings from The Herald (2015): According to the NWS Cleveland, OH, the strongest of the tornadoes on May 31st touched down at the Ravenna Arsenal in eastern Portage County around 6:35 pm EDT. Leduc et al. Yet here we were at 3:30 in the afternoon and not one shower had popped yet on the radar. The tornado touched down in Portage County Ohio at 6:30 pm EDT and travelled 47 miles to lift in Mercer County Pennsylvania at 7:35 pm EDT. MOVING I worked at Weather Services Corporation from 1980 until 1988 before starting my own business. The tornado stayed on the ground for over an hour and produced a 56-mile long damage path. Lots and lots and lots of sirens. This process continued from 4pm to about 8pm resulting in serious tornado activity across the entire Erie WSO warning area. By early afternoon, thunderstorms developed in Ontario, Canada just ahead of the cold front. I agreed to stay to help with the extra workload in the event things started to pop. That tornados path of destruction stopped near Tidioute and we continued flying south following the Allegheny River back to the PSP barracks. Climate Prediction Center I represented the 65thlegislative district which included all of Warren and Forest Counties and the northern third of Venango County. CLE Office At 850 mb (Figure 3), very warm/moist air was surging north into the Ohio Valley and a dryline was observed over the western Great Lakes and Midwest. Convective available potential energy (CAPE) at 1257 J/kg, helicity at 355 m2/s2 (which is favorable for the development of mid-level rotation) and energy helicity index (EHI) at 3.1. 1985 Tornado Outbreak Revisited [PowerPoint presentation]. NWS Pittsburgh. The most-favored areas are in Tornado Alley, between the Rockies and the Mississippi River, from central Texas through South Dakota, where contrasting dry air that often is part of the tornado recipe, is plentiful. One F5 tornado hit Wheatland, PA and it remained the only F5 to hit east of the Mississippi River until 2011. The tree coverage is very dense in the forest with deep shade even on sunny days. Each severe weather report seemed worse than the one before it. 5:45 pm EDT - Tornado Warning It was MemorialDay weekend and the traffic was lighter than usual for a Friday. The true enormity of the31 Mayevent would not, however, become apparent to me until the following day when I awoke to radio news accounts from the devastated region. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Homes and other structures were swept away or leveled in and near Palluel. Reports indicated possible F5-level damage to homes. I arrived at the office about 3:30 PM to a cloudless sky, but warm and humid conditions. A closer view of the surface analysis of the warm sector, the area between the cold front and the warm front, at 7PM (23 UTC) Friday evening (courtesy Paul Markowski), shows how warm and especially how moist the airmass ahead of the cold front had become. Most of Wheatlands businesses and industries were destroyed or badly damaged including Yourga Trucking, B&D Trucking, Steel Trucking, R&J Trucking, Sharon Metal Fence, Wheatland Tube Co., two plants of Sawhill Tubular Products, N/S Corp., William Orr Co. and a Bell of Pennsylvania maintenance garage. Gangat, Rihaan. For a horrifying day, a tornado alley cut through Pennsylvania. On storm surveys the next day, Forbes saw stacks of ripped-down trees piled 10 feet high. StormReady In 30 years, a whole new generation has been born and has grown into adulthood. Trees will be compeltely debarked and . The combination of moisture, instability, lift, and wind shear were present across a large area of the northeastern U.S. on May 31st. A car engine, found nearby, was carried for a similar distance. From that point on through the evening, weather conditions worsened. Retrieved from: https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/sfc2.shtmlNational Weather Service Cleveland, Ohio (2019). Pennsylvania Tornadoes This data was collection of Tornadoes from over 54 years ago. A farm was completely leveled, and a child was reportedly carried .5mi (0.80km) away. Retrieved from: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/. Homes were swept away, and a boxcar was thrown 100yd (300ft). Of these twenty-one, one was rated an F5, and six were rated F4s. I wanted to travel to Marienville but all the roads were blocked by downed trees and the fireman advised that I should not attempt to get there. Some tornadoes form independently from supercells. That was the end of the convection for the evening and just as suddenly as the event started, it was over. Stories like that of David Kostka, a 36-year-old Little League umpire and newlywed from Wheatland who gave his own life saving the lives of his young niece and her friend. The peak period in the central United States is early spring, with the crest of the wave gradually rippling eastward later in the spring and in June. The strength of the front and the degree of instability lead to the erosion or breaking of the cap and thunderstorms exploded with violent results. Atlantic was just about totally wiped out. The Allegheny National Forest has recovered as the downed trees were harvested and new trees have grown to replace them. The tornado was still in the air above my head- things were swirling around. This was about the only structure untouched. Advertisement. Storm Prediction Center, Weather Safety The 850mb level is about 5000 feet above the ground. This tornado stayed on the ground for 45 miles but fortunately killed no people. These scales the Fujita scale, the Enhanced Fujita scale, the International Fujita scale, and the TORRO tornado intensity scale attempt to estimate the intensity of a tornado by classifying the damage caused to natural features and man-made structures in the tornado's path. 34 years ago today in my hometown of Niles, Ohio, this F5 tornado killed nine people. An extremely powerful tornado, rated T10. Grabbing onto something and flying through the air. 10 violent (F4 or F5) tornadoes; 12 killer tornadoes 89 fatalities (65 in Pa.; 69 tornado deaths in Pa. in previous 50 years) Damage estimated in excess of $600 million ($1.5 billion in. Of these twenty-one, one was rated an F5, and six were rated F4's. This area is very hilly terrain and the tornado did not skip from one hill to the next, but went right down into the valley and up the other side for a far as the eye could see. Supplemental Information from our neighbors at WFO CTP: European Severe Storms Laboratory). THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN ERIE HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WARNING UNTIL 530 PM FOR THESE COUNTIES IN NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIASOUTHERN ERIE A TORNADO WAS SIGHTED BY STATE POLICE NEAR PENNSIDESOUTH OF ALBION IN ERIE COUNTY AT 505 PMMOVING TOWARD THE NORTHEAST AT 30 MILES AN HOUR. I lived in a mobile home park. Pennsylvania averages 16 tornadoes/yr. I was especially saddened to find out that our favorite ice cream stand in Tidioute PA had beendestroyed by the tornado that passed through that lovely little town. However Atlantic burns forever in my mind. While flying over the Wilderness Area, someone in the helicopter thought they had seen someone flash a signal or wave something. I was much more interested in baseball than weather then, though we recently completed a weather unit in school in which tornadoes were among the topics. While watching television the night of the storms, I remember seeing a national news report about the tornado outbreak. Of the 59 tornadoes in the United States, 50 are officially rated F5 on the original Fujita scale (with dates of occurrence between May 11, 1953, and May 3, 1999), and nine are officially rated EF5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale (with dates of occurrence between May 4, 2007, and May 20, 2013). A school disintegrated, and two farms were swept away. Additional Links. Several teenagers were caught in the open and were picked up and thrown 1,000yd (0.57mi) but survived. Frankly, all we had was afax with very blurry pictures of perfect hook echoes and the latest severe weather statements and tornadowarnings from the National Weather Service. All buildings and machinery were swept away from a farm. A warm front lifted north across the region during the predawn hours of the 31st. It mowed down just about every tree in the forests, in a path more than a mile wide at times, and stacking fallen trees atop each other piled 10 feet high.. Dry, gusty winds will promote critical fire weather over southern Arizona Monday. National Weather Service On May 31, 1985, an F5 tornado devastated the towns of Newton Falls and Niles, OH and many other communities in Trumbull and Mercer counties. I couldn't not just sit back and do nothing through the next week. Soundings are created by plotting the data reported by weather balloons that are launched by the NWS each day all across the country. NOTE: The National Weather Service in Cleveland is looking for photos, videos, etc from the May 31, 1985 Tornado Outbreak. From 1989 to 1993, I attended Penn State, focusing on a Degree in Meteorology. Between this scan and the next one at 4:55 PM, the cells had strengthened rapidly. Tornadoes get their spin when winds blow in different directions in a column of air. At the same time, conditions in the upper atmosphere continued to become more favorable for an outbreak of severe weather. This list includes tornadoes believed or confirmed to have been at F5 or EF5 intensity. BTORNADOESLARGE HAILDANGEROUS LIGHTNINGAND DAMAGING THUNDERSTORM WINDS ARE POSSIBLEIN THESE AREAS. About all I saw. Five farms had all buildings swept away, homes were "absolutely reduced to kindling," and lumber was scattered for miles. Working during the outbreak and witnessing the aftermath helped shape my future career as a broadcast meteorologist. The former Thrift Drug Co. sent 5,000 pounds of items to the Shenango Valley. Here's the national data, from NOAA. May 31, 1985 was a Friday during the period between spring semester and summer session, but many graduate students remained in town working. . For a horrifying day, a tornado alley cut through Pennsylvania. Richard Thornburgh visited the Shenango Valley over the weekend and at his request, President Ronald Reagan issued a federal disaster declaration on Monday. F5, F4, F3 tornados like no one has ever seen before. More than one. The question in our minds was: will the air mass heat enough to break the cap? This composite chart (courtesy Rihaan Gangat, NWS Pittsburgh) shows an expansive area of negative values with a bullseye of the lowest LIs (most unstable air) over eastern Ohio and southwestern Pennsylvania. Figure 2 depicts the surface analysis on the morning of May 31st. THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA. The tornado finally lifted south of the town of Mercer after damaging or destroying more than a thousand homes. Susan was a resident of New Waterford, Ohio and experienced the Middleton, Ohio tornado. It was an alarming yell, so I quickly ran to my window and yelled out to see if he was okay. In the years that followed, I got to spend some time with Greg at various American Meteorological Society conferences, and we often talked about the wild night of May 31st in 1985. [5] With building design and structural integrity taken more into account, winds in an EF5 tornado were estimated to be in excess of 200mph (320km/h). The remaining residents have rebuilt their homes and lives and the area remains a beautiful place to live and work. Often the true extent of damage is not known until the disaster survey team can inspect the damage the next day. There were deaths but also miraculous tales of survival and many many tales of heroism. The storms seemed to just explode in the matter of minutes and the radar returns were much stronger than any I had ever seen at that distance on the Penn State radar. At 4:10 pm, the NWS Office in Cleveland issued the first severe thunderstorm warning of the day for Ashtabula County. They were being spotted everywhere and even in Greenville. Twenty-one tornadoes tracked across Northeast Ohio and Northwest Pennsylvania during the evening of May 31st. Rip Currents, ABOUT In all, 43 tornadoes touched down between about 4 and 11 p.m. that Friday in an unstable weather front stretching from Ontario, Canada, through New York, Pennsylvania and into southern Ohio.. Social Media Dashboard. This tornado was rated EF5 by the French Observatory of Tornadoes and Violent Thunderstorms (Keraunos), with the European Severe Storms Laboratory acknowledging the EF5 rating as its maximum intensity, though ESSL also rated the tornado F5. After the F5 tornado hit on April 3, 1974, ten sirens were installed across the area. I was to work from the church. This day remains the deadliest tornado outbreak ever documented in Pennsylvania. Another measure of instability is the Lifted Index (LI). Figure 7 depicts a modified sounding depicting the CAPE at Pittsburgh, PA at 7:00 pm. At any rate, I immediately decided I wanted to be a meteorologist. Chinook, 8, 13-18. Admission after admission. National Weather Service Strong or violent tornadoes can and do occur in areas where minimal damage occurs, leading to a low EF scale rating. Please try another search. It also blasted the area and survivors with grit and stones picked up from a sand-and-gravel company on the edge of town.ANNE REDFIELD | Herald file. I lived in Camp Hill, just west of Harrisburg, so I was too far southeast to experience the storms firsthand. By the next morning, however, the carnage was widely known throughout the state and country. The visible satellite loop above shows the development and explosive growth of thunderstorms across southern Ontario, Ohio, western Pennsylvania and western New York on the afternoon of May 31, This two day series of Daily Weather Maps (courtesy NOAA/NWS) shows the eastward progression of the cold front; from near Chicago on Friday morning May 31, Precipitation looks like a hook on the radar returns; showing. The tornado intensified to an F5 as it tracked east across southern Trumbull County devastating the communities of Newton Falls and Niles. This was my first severe weather shift as a lead forecaster. The strongest tornado ever to strike Pennsylvania crosses Wheatland on May 31, 1985. A house was swept away on the outskirts of town. Wereturned home that night, and I told my parents that I had made a decision that is still with metoday: I wanted to chase tornadoes. Half of a brick building remained standing in the village. I drew on that experience numerous times in the decades ahead, mostly in storm-prone central Illinois. A few, such as the Tri-State Tornado of 1925, are widely accepted as F5/EF5/T10+ tornadoes, despite not being rated as such in official records. Each rapidly moving storm laid down a significant outflow boundary and resulted in new cell formation further to the south of the previous storms. On June 3rd, the Federal Government declared a state of emergency for the state of Pennsylvania. Heavy wet snow on the backside of this storm could accumulate up to two feet through Monday across northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Sorry, the location you searched for was not found. Marine The vertical extent of the storm was astounding as it moved across. The fact that significant weather occurred did not take anybody by surprise, but the magnitude of what happened was unprecedented. However, as the afternoon progressed, the thunderstorm activity developed south into northern Ohio. Possible F5/EF5/T10+ tornadoes officially rated F4/EF4/T9 or lower, Previously rated F5/EF5 or rated F5/EF5 by others, Possible F5/EF5/T10+ tornadoes with no official rating. I drove to Tionestaon Saturdaymorning to meet the helicopter. Not much really happened through the day. It is described as a "possible" F5. We were unable to track a subsequent, deadly tornado that roared through the Elimsport/Watsontown areas. Thats just one reason why the 1985 outbreak was so shocking. Philadelphia County has had 12 tornadoes since 1958. Upon waking up later in the day and hearing the news, I remember being shocked to hear aboutall of the damage, injuries and fatalities. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Produced possible F5 damage according to Grazulis. In total, 43 tornadoes touched down including eight F4 tornadoes, one of which went through the state forest to our north, and a F5 tornado in the Sharon PA area, that decimated the town of Wheatland PA. (1986), an unseasonably strong low pressure center tracked across upper Michigan during the morning hours to just north of Sudbury by evening. I graduated in 1993 from the University with my BS in Meteorology, and in August of 1993 I began my National Weather Service career in a small Weather Forecast Office in Wichita Falls, TX. Also, my grandparents harkened from theFinger Lakes region of New York, so I was familiar with many areas of western New Yorkaffected by the outbreak. Around 10pm, during one of the top-of-the-hour commercial and news breaks, the top story was that there had been deadly tornadoes earlier that evening in Ohio and Pennsylvania, though details remained sketchy at that point. A ten-block area was completely destroyed with nine people loosing their lives. I will never forget seeing the isolated supercell responsible for the Moshannon tornado as it moved steadily east across the Allegheny Plateau, and trying to determine if it would remain north of Centre County and Penn State. I remember waking up to the thunder and looking out the window. The visible satellite loop above shows the development and explosive growth of thunderstorms across southern Ontario, Ohio, western Pennsylvania and western New York on the afternoon of May 31st. The cold front moving east provided the lift as it pushed into the warm sector and the dewpoints into the 70s show the available moisture. The tornado destroyed nearly the entire town of Wheatland, and seven more people were killed. I interviewed many folks and heard story after story after incredible story. The trough is shown with dry air aloft or cap. I relieved Bill Drzal who was the lead forecaster on the day shift, and Bill briefed me on the tornado potential. The first hour or so of the shift was comparatively quiet; it took awhile before the first damage and injury/death reports made their way through the teletype circuits (the teletype or "Comms" room through which SELS received most damage reports at the time would close later the same year).
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