1985 was a very stormy year for the United States mostly fueled by an ongoing La Nina. The year 1985 was a destructive year concerning hurricanes and tornadoes. There were several tornado outbreaks. However, one of the worst occurred in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. This tornado outbreak is still historic 40 years later.

A strong low pressure system moved out of the upper Midwest into Ohio and Western Pennsylvania at the end of May. Above average temperatures were ahead of the storm system. The storm system had a cold front aloft to it. Southerly winds created wind shear ahead of the storm system. Behind the storm system was strong winds over 90 mph aloft. This created wind energy and the changing of the winds created Wind Sear.

On May 31st temperatures were in the low 80's and the humid air from the Gulf raised dew points 66-72 degrees. This caused rapid destablization to occur. Thunderstorms started to develop and rapidly turn severe with damaging winds and later tornadoes. These tornadoes were rain wrapped which made them hard to see.

Several tornadoes began to touch down on the evening of May 31st and would continue into June 1st. Ohio and Western Pennsylvania can and are tornado prone. But what made these tornadoes so bad was they were intense tornadoes. About 60% of the tornadoes that touched down were rated F2 or higher.

Some of the notable tornadoes from this outbreak

Monroe Ohio/Erie PA Tornado This tornado touched down in Ohio and continued into Erie County Pennsylvania. This tornado reached a peak of F4 intensity. This tornado caused millions of damage and killed 12 people.

Brundysburg OH Tornado this tornado was an F3 and destroyed over 40 homes

Linesville PA Tornado- This tornado was rated F2 and killed 1 person

Cornelion OH to Eagle Rock PA- This was another destructive tornado that impacted OH and PA. This one was also an F4 type tornado and one of the deadliest. This tornado killed 16 people.

Centerville PA- Another intense tornado touched reaching peak of F3 strength. This tornado killed 2 people by destroying homes.

Waterford PA- Another F4 type tornado that destroyed homes, and buildings.

Newton Falls OH and Mercer PA- This tornado was the deadliest and strongest. This tornado peaked as an F5 destroying buildings, barns, and homes. 18 people perished.

Ows Nest PA tornado- Another F4 tornado did severe damage killing 7 people

Glen Hazel PA tornado- Another F4 tornado that destroyed homes killing 4 people

Butler PA tornado- This F3 tornado did severe damage to homes and buildings. Sadly this tornado killed 9 people

Union PA tornado- This F3 tornado hit several subdivisions killing 6 people

This tornado outbreak remains one of the worst for Eastern OH and Western Pennsylvania to this day 40 years later. While that area has had several tornado outbreaks since then. This one is still the worst not so much for the tornadoes produced but due to how strong they were.

This outbreak produced 32 tornadoes in Eastern Oho and West/Central Pennsylvania. Also 76 people were killed due to this outbreak. The ingredients came together to produce this monster outbreak. However, what made the tornadoes so bad was they were rain wrapped people had no way of seeing them. To make matters worse Western PA is full of hills and mountains. The hills and mountains made it difficult to spot tornadoes due to the hilly terrain. There was also some nighttime tornadoes in this outbreak as well.

This outbreak is still studied today on how over 60% of the tornadoes were F2 or higher type tornadoes. As a Meteorologist myself I can remember when I was in college we did an analysis of this tornado outbreak. You had very warm air colliding with cold air aloft, then you had the very high wind shear, moisture from the Gulf, thermal energy, and wind energy over 90 mph blasting in along with a 100 mph or greater jet. This is what lead to the tornadoes being intense. This outbreak also is what lead to more studies being done on why strong tornadoes develop. Even though this was 40 years ago it paved the way for better forecasting and determining if conditions are right for long tracked tornadoes.