40 years ago, a tornado outbreak killed 75 people in Pennsylvania
It's been 40 years since western Pennsylvania endured one of the worst tornado outbreaks ever to hit the area.
On May 31, 1985, over the span of nine hours, more than 40 tornadoes touched down in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario, Canada. Half of those tornadoes hit western Pennsylvania.
The worst included four F-3 tornadoes, including one that tracked 39 miles through Beaver and Butler counties. Four F-4 tornadoes hit Crawford, Erie, Forest, Mercer and Venango counties. And the strongest and deadliest tornado of the outbreak was an F-5 that tracked from Ravenna, Ohio, 47 miles to Wheatland in Mercer County.
Eighty-nine people were killed in the outbreak, with 75 of those lives lost in Pennsylvania. More than 1,000 people were hurt. The tornadoes caused $600 million in damage.
How did the 1985 tornado outbreak happen?
An unseasonably hot and humid air mass flowed northeast from the south during the morning and midday hours of May 31, 1985. This fuel was able to keep building through the afternoon because of a strong cap or lid of warm and dry air in the middle of the atmosphere. By early evening, the cap ferociously broke open as a strong cold front and jet stream winds moved in from the west, resulting in rotating storms that produced dozens of strong to violent tornadoes.
To mark 40 years since that devastating outbreak, KDKA First Alert Meteorologist Trey Fulbright put together a series of stories as a way to remember the victims, the survivors and the resilience of so many local communities. You can watch the full video in the player above.
