User:CapeVerdeWave/1985 United States–Canada tornado outbreak

On May 30–31, 1985, a severe outbreak of 61 tornadoes, including 14 in Canada, affected portions of central and eastern North America, particularly Ontario, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. The severe weather event is often referred to as the 1985 United States–Canada tornado outbreak or the Barrie tornado outbreak, the latter alluding to an F4 tornado that affected Barrie, Ontario. The outbreak is also referred to as Black Friday in Canada. It is the largest and most intense tornado outbreak ever to hit the Allegheny Plateau, including Appalachian Ohio and the Twin Tiers, and the worst tornado outbreak in Pennsylvania history in terms of deaths and destruction.

The deadliest and strongest tornado of this outbreak was an F5 on the Fujita scale that touched down in Portage County, Ohio, near Camp James A. Garfield outside Ravenna, at about 6:30 p.m. EDT (22:30 UTC) on May 31 and cut a 47 mi path through Newton Falls, Niles, and Hubbard, Ohio, before entering Pennsylvania. This tornado, which produced F5-level damage in both Ohio and Pennsylvania, was the only F5 on record in the latter state and the deadliest Ohio tornado since the Xenia F5 during the 1974 Super Outbreak. The tornado affected the same area as an F4 tornado family that struck on June 7, 1947, killing six people and injuring 340 others.

The outbreak claimed 90 lives in the United States and Canada, the most for an outbreak since the 1974 Super Outbreak, and a mark that stood until the 2011 Super Outbreak. It was the third costliest tornado outbreak in the history of the U.S., where it caused $600 million (2010 USD) in damages, primarily in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. It was also one of the costliest in Canada: damage in Ontario totaled an estimated $400 million USD. The damage would total nearly $1 billion in 2010 USD. The areas hardest hit in the outbreak were Albion, Pennsylvania; Barrie, Ontario; Atlantic, Pennsylvania; Niles, Ohio; Wheatland, Pennsylvania; and Big Beaver, Pennsylvania.

Background
The upper-air pattern was conducive to a major severe weather event in the Great Lakes region on Friday, May 31. An unseasonably deep low-pressure system of 984 mb crossed out of the Midwestern United States through the day, and then into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. At daybreak, the strong area of low pressure was centered near Duluth, Minnesota. A cold front extended south from the low across the western Great Lakes and then through Illinois and Missouri. Severe thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes had already raked parts of the Midwest, particularly Iowa and Wisconsin, the day previous, associated with this same cold front. The low tracked across the northern Great Lakes during the afternoon, while the cold front progressed eastward across Indiana and western Ohio. Very warm, moist air advected in ahead of this system, forming a broad warm sector. Temperatures reached approximately 80 – across much of southern Ontario, in addition to high dew points. By late afternoon, temperatures had reached 87 F at Cleveland, Ohio, 82 F at Youngstown, and 85 F at Erie, Pennsylvania. An unstable atmosphere, with surface-based lifted indices around minus 6, was the byproduct of this. Directional wind shear was also present in the warm sector of the storm, in addition to high helicity values and a vorticity maximum approaching the lower Great Lakes. The situation was compounded by the presence of copious amounts of moisture, which would allow any storms that could form to become severe rather quickly. Also, this was supportive of the high-precipitation (HP) counterpart of the supercell thunderstorm. All of this added up to the distinct possibility of severe rotating storms that were "messy," hard to see, and extremely dangerous. What was needed now was a trigger, and that came in the form of a trailing cold front behind the low. The day started off on an active note with the warm front moving northward. Following the warm frontal passage, skies cleared rapidly and temperatures quickly began to rise. The cold front began crossing Lake Huron towards the noon hour, and with it several thunderstorms developed shortly after 1:30 p.m. EDT (17:30 UTC), with the northernmost cell soon becoming most dominant. Despite a forecast for severe thunderstorms, though, the sun shone relentlessly for most of that Friday because of a fourth element: a stable air mass at about 2,000 feet, which served as a "lid," or capping inversion, on the brew beneath. Then, at 2:50 p.m. EDT (18:50 UTC), the "lid" moved, and huge cumulonimbus clouds—anvil-topped thunderheads—seemingly appeared out of nowhere all along the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Proceeding at 50 kn, these quickly grew into potent supercells.

Impact
The outbreak lasted roughly from just before 3:00 p.m. EDT (19:00 UTC), when the first tornado touched down in Wiarton, Ontario, until around midnight EDT (04:00 UTC) when the last reported tornado struck Tobyhanna, Pennsylvania. The peak of the outbreak took place during the early evening hours where the strongest and deadliest tornadoes formed across western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Environment Canada issued a severe thunderstorm warning at 2:25 p.m. (18:25 UTC) for Bruce County (complementing the special weather statement issued early that morning). At around 2:50 p.m. EDT (18:50 UTC), an F2 tornado touched down briefly in the Lion's Head area (north of Wiarton) before moving out over Georgian Bay and dissipating. A possible tornado was reported near Leamington, accompanied by golfball-sized hail from widespread, severe thunderstorm activity in southwestern Ontario.

The second tornado of the day touched down south of Hopeville around 3:45 p.m. EDT (19:45 UTC), causing some localized F3 damage along its track. This tornado lifted after a 17 km path, but another tornado quickly formed just north of Corbetton, in northern Dufferin County, at about 4:15 p.m. EDT (20:15 UTC). It stayed over rural areas for most of its 40 km path, however a few homes (especially in the Terra Nova and Mansfield area) sustained F3 damage (it has been somewhat disputed whether this path was of two separate tornadoes, rather than just one). In any case, shortly after this tornado had clearly dissipated, there were hints of another brief touchdown near Angus in the Blackdown Park training area of Canadian Forces Base Borden (north of Alliston).

At about the same time the Lion's Head tornado dissipated, two very severe thunderstorms had developed (that probably owe their inception, at least partially, to lake-breeze-related convergence): one to the east of Clinton and another further to the north, in the Walkerton area. These two developing supercells would grow into a pair of devastating, cyclic storms within the next hour—likely the most prolific tornado producers in Canadian history to date. Meanwhile, at 4:25 p.m. EDT (20:25 UTC), as thunderstorms developed farther south, the National Severe Storms Forecast Center (NSSFC) in Kansas City, Missouri, issued Tornado Watch Number 211, covering portions of Ohio, the Virginia Panhandle, Pennsylvania, and New York. Outflow boundaries left by each supercell aided the growth of new cells.

Most of the tornadic activity at this point moved into southeastern Ontario producing more tornadoes (some of which were significant). These tornadoes formed around the Highway 7 corridor between Lindsay to Madoc near the towns of Wagner Lake (F1 at 5:40 p.m. EDT/21:40 UTC), Reaboro (F1 at 6:05 p.m. EDT/22:05 UTC), Ida (F2 at 6:20 p.m. EDT/22:20 UTC), Rice Lake (F3 at 6:25 p.m. EDT/22:25 UTC), and Minto (F1 at 6:35 p.m. EDT/22:35 UTC). Most of these tornadoes had conversely shorter paths than the earlier tornadoes, likely as a result of the parent thunderstorms beginning to weaken. In addition, they did not receive as much media attention as the previous tornadoes (those earlier storms were grouped collectively by the media as comprising "The Barrie Tornado"), probably a result of the fact that they did not have the opportunity to cause as much damage.

Even so, at the time these more eastern tornadoes were touching down, a final, more isolated supercell developed near Milverton in eastern Perth County which spawned a tornado at 6:15 p.m. EDT (22:15 UTC). On the ground for approximately 15 minutes, this tornado tracked a 33 km path of sporadic F3 damage (mainly to outbuildings) from Alma east-northeast towards the Hillsburgh area. Its path was almost parallel to the Grand Valley/Tottenham tornado only a couple of hours earlier. Additionally, an F1 tornado touched down far to the east of the other twisters from that day at around 8:10 p.m. EDT (00:10 UTC), near Grippen Lake, about 35 km northeast of Kingston, Ontario. Until 2016 the tornado was not officially documented, making it a fourteenth, "lost and found" tornado.

Three tornadoes were reported in New York: two in Chautauqua County, and one in St. Lawrence County. The first tornado, rated F4, crossed into New York from Erie County, Pennsylvania, and tracked for 28 mi (16 mi in Pennsylvania, 12 mi in New York), striking Clymer and Harmony in southwestern Chautauqua County before dissipating. The second tornado, rated F3, touched down in southeastern Chautauqua County and tracked for 13 mi, striking Kiantone, Carroll and Poland, and narrowly missing Jamestown to the east. The third tornado, rated F1, touched down in northern St. Lawrence County, and was produced by a supercell that crossed into the North Country from Ontario. This tornado tracked for 5 mi, passing north of Norfolk.

Volga–Elkader–Clayton Center–Garnavillo, Iowa/Bagley–Mount Hope, Wisconsin
This was the first of three strong tornadoes to form successively from a single supercell on May 30 that tracked generally eastward across northeastern Iowa and southwestern Wisconsin. Forming in Clayton County, Iowa, just north of Volga, the tornado killed two people in a nursing home as it passed near Elkader. Moving at 45 mi/h, the tornado hit 20 farms in its 22 mi path across Iowa before crossing the Upper Mississippi River into Wisconsin. Initial losses in Clayton County alone exceeded $9 million, of which $1.5 million occurred at the nursing home. In all, damages in the county eventually reached $25 million, with 25 injuries reported. The tornado passed very close to Clayton Center and Garnavillo before exiting the state between Clayton and Eckards. In Grant County, Wisconsin, the tornado injured two people near Bagley, passed between Bloomington and Patch Grove, and dissipated a short distance south of Mount Hope. In its 11 mi path across Wisconsin, the tornado destroyed a century-old stand of pine trees, "leveled" a farmhouse, and destroyed or damaged a total of 62 structures. Losses reached $2.5 million in Grant County. In all, the tornado traveled 34 mi across two states, killed two people, injured 27, and caused $27.5 million in losses. It produced F3-level damage in Iowa and F2-level damage in Wisconsin.

Arthur–Grand Valley–Orangeville–Tottenham–Bradford–Newmarket–Mount Albert, Ontario
The storm which had initially developed east of Clinton produced a new tornado a couple kilometres north of Arthur by 4:15 p.m (20:15 UTC) on May 31. Many power lines and hydroelectric towers were destroyed early in its lifetime (including those used to deliver electricity from the Bruce Nuclear Generating Station to northern and western parts of the Greater Toronto Area). The tornado quickly widened, intensified and reached violent proportions by the time it reached the small crossroads community of Grand Valley just before 4:30 p.m. (20:30 UTC). At that point the tornado's damage path was approximately 200 m wide.

The tornado caused major damage in the small town, where two people were killed. An elderly woman visiting from Scotland died as the home was destroyed, and a man was killed in his pickup truck on a nearby farm. The worst damage was found along Amaranth Street (running west to east, parallel to the tornado's path) where the local library, three churches, and many other homes were severely damaged or destroyed. Approximately 60 structures in total sustained damage. The most severe was on the north side of the street, where some homes exhibited classic F4 damage. The library roof was found some 200 m away on a nearby house.

Continuing eastward through more open country, the tornado brushed the northern outskirts of Orangeville about 15 minutes later where the southern portion of the Mono Shopping Plaza completely collapsed (injuring 67 people, one of them seriously). It then caused extensive damage to approximately 50 buildings (many of which were only recently built) about 2 km south of the town of Tottenham at around 5:00 p.m. EDT (21:00 UTC). Two more people died here, as an elderly man was crushed under an equipment shed on his farm and a woman was killed in her home. The tornado continued moving to the east-northeast, crossing Highway 400 into York region. It just missed the cities of Bradford and Newmarket before lifting west of Mount Albert at 5:25 p.m. (21:25 UTC), with a path length in excess of 100 km, thus setting a Canadian record that still stands today. When the earliest tornado track maps were published within the next year, they showed this particular tornado to have tracked almost twice as far towards the Peterborough area before dissipating. In more recent years this theory has proved to be incorrect; it is likely that this supercell was also a cyclic one.

Monroe Center, Ohio/Tracy–Pennside–Albion–Cranesville–Ivarea, Pennsylvania
The first of two F4 tornadoes to affect Erie County, Pennsylvania, touched down just west of the Pennsylvania state line, southeast of Monroe Center, Ohio, around 5:00 p.m. EDT (21:00 UTC). In Ashtabula County the tornado splintered power poles, felled trees, and destroyed or damaged 10 mobile homes. Losses in the county totaled $250,000, but with neither deaths nor injuries. Subsequently the tornado skirted the northwestern tip of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and then entered Erie County, passing just south of Tracy and through the Jumbo Woods. At 5:13 p.m. (21:13 UTC) the National Weather Service in Erie received reports from Pennsylvania State Police indicating the tornado northwest of Pennside. After causing considerable damage there, the tornado struck downtown Albion, destroying or damaging more than 100 homes in town. A 10-block area and a trailer park were completely destroyed, with nine people being killed. The tornado killed three more people in Cranesville, destroying 13 trailers in two additional trailer parks. The tornado continued to near Ivarea before lifting. There were also 82 injuries, and a total of 309 destroyed buildings.

Barrie, Ontario
Unofficial estimates of the dead and injured ranged as high as 12 and 281, respectively. Hundreds of people were left out of work largely as a result of the massive damage sustained to the Molson Park industrial complex in Barrie. Of the 605 homes in the path of the Barrie tornado, approximately one-third were rendered uninhabitable.

Jamestown–Atlantic–Cochranton–Hannasville–Cooperstown–Cherrytree, Pennsylvania
The second-deadliest tornado in Pennsylvania history touched down in Trumbull County, Ohio, just yards away from the Pennsylvania state line, and tracked for 56 miles through northwestern Pennsylvania. Rated F4, the tornado struck Jamestown in northwestern Mercer County, Atlantic and Cochranton in southern Crawford County, and Cooperstown in northern Venango County, narrowly missing Oil City to the north before dissipating south of Tionesta in western Forest County. The tornado caused major damage in and around Jamestown, Atlantic, Cochranton, Hannasville, Cooperstown, and Cherrytree.

Newton Falls–Lordstown–Niles–Hubbard–Coalburg, Ohio/Wheatland–Hermitage–Greenfield, Pennsylvania
This extremely violent tornado began in eastern Ohio, and tore directly through the towns of Niles, Ohio, and Wheatland, Pennsylvania, producing F5 damage at both locations. The tornado killed 18 people and injured 310, and was the most violent and deadly of the 43 recorded that day. Registering F5 on the Fujita scale, it remains the only F5 in Pennsylvania history, and was also the most violent tornado reported in the United States in 1985.

It first touched down in Ohio near the Ravenna Arsenal in Portage County around 6:30 p.m. EDT (22:30 UTC). Gathering strength, it moved quickly into Newton Falls in Trumbull County causing F3 to F4 damage through much of the town. While nearly 400 homes were heavily damaged or destroyed, no fatalities were recorded in Newton Falls, due to storm preparedness of local authorities and its tornado siren. Additional homes were completely destroyed as the tornado struck the north side of Lordstown. Continuing east, the tornado reached F5 intensity as it tore through the north side of Niles. Hundreds of homes in the Niles area were destroyed, including several homes with anchor bolts that were swept away with the debris scattered downwind. The Niles Park Plaza shopping center, known as the "Top of the Strip" Mall, was completely leveled and partially swept away at F5 intensity, with several of the fatalities occurring at that location. Steel girders were buckled at the shopping center, and a nearby retirement home and a skating rink were leveled as well. As the tornado struck an industrial area in Niles, large, 30 ft metal petroleum storage tanks (each weighing 75000 lb) were torn from where they were anchored and thrown, some of which were tossed or bounced considerable distances. One of the tanks was found in the middle of a road, 60 yd from where it originated. The tornado weakened slightly as it tore through the north side of Hubbard and through the center of Coalburg, though many additional homes were still leveled in those areas.

As the tornado crossed the state line and reached Wheatland, Pennsylvania, it was 1/2 mi wide and had regained F5 strength. The steel-frame Yourga Trucking plant in Wheatland was completely obliterated and partially swept away at F5 intensity, as the building's steel girder frame was mangled into a pile and pushed off of the foundation. At nearby Wheatland Sheet and Tube, sections of pavement were scoured from the parking lot, and shards of sheet metal and routing slips were left wedged beneath the remaining asphalt. 95% of Wheatland's business and residential area were destroyed. According to Storm Data from the National Weather Service, the destruction of the town "resembled that of a bombed-out battle field." Continuing east, the tornado weakened slightly but remained violent as it struck Hermitage, damaging or destroying 71 homes along with the town's airport, destroying several hangars and airplanes. A wing from one of the aircraft was found 10 mi away in Mercer. Another trucking steel processing plant were heavily damaged in Hermitage as well. The tornado then destroyed 15 homes and damaged 30 others in the Greenfield area before finally dissipating.

In Ohio, it was the deadliest tornado since the Xenia F5 during the Super Outbreak of April 3, 1974. The tornado was also captured on camera by several residents.

Parker Dam State Park–Moshannon State Forest, Pennsylvania
Described as "one of the most impressive tornadic events of the 20th century" by meteorologist and researcher Thomas Grazulis, a massive, high-end F4 tornado tracked for 69 mi through dense forest in central Pennsylvania. Near the beginning of its path, a few homes were heavily damaged and some outbuildings were destroyed, but otherwise, the tornado passed entirely through uninhabited areas in the Moshannon and Sproul State Forests. Surveyors estimated the damage path to be at least 2 + 1/2 mi wide, with more than 90,000 trees obliterated. The tornado also generated tremors that set off local seismometers, and even the primitive WSR-57 weather radar in State College picked up a distinct reflectivity spike (also known as a "debris ball"), due to the large amount of trees and other vegetation being uprooted and lifted into the air as the tornado passed through the forest north of Interstate 80. The tornado may have reached F5 intensity at one or more isolated points, but there were very few structural indicators in the path, so the highest possible rating was F4.

Big Beaver–North Sewickley Township–Callery, Pennsylvania
One deadly tornado impacted the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Rated F3, the tornado tracked for 39 mi through northern Beaver County and southern Butler County in southwestern Pennsylvania, approximately 20 mi north of Pittsburgh, narrowly missing the northernmost suburbs of the city. In Big Beaver, two people were killed when the Big Beaver Plaza was destroyed, along with more than 100 vehicles in the parking lot. Across the Beaver River from the shopping plaza, 16 antique vehicles were destroyed in a garage on River Road. Despite being rebuilt in 1987, business never recovered at the shopping plaza, which sits vacant today. In North Sewickley Township, the tornado struck the junction of PA 65 and PA 588, destroying the Spotlight 88 Drive-In Theater, a gas station, three homes and two other businesses. The drive-in theater was never rebuilt, and the site is used as a flea market today. In Butler County, the tornado crossed Interstate 79, where it blew a southbound van 1/4 mi off the highway. The family inside the van was ejected, but survived. A trailer park near Evans City was destroyed, as was another trailer on Water Station Road, where two people were killed. Near Callery, 40 homes were destroyed. People in the area reported pieces of sheet metal and shreds of pink insulation falling from the sky shortly before the tornado arrived. Near the end of its path, the tornado killed a babysitter and a young girl near Saxonbug, before dissipating near Sarver. In all, this tornado killed nine people, injured 120, and caused more than $10,000,000 in damage in Beaver County.

Aftermath and recovery
Following the event, 90 people were dead and 1,133 were injured, as close to 1,000 businesses and homes were wiped out. One of the more sobering instances was that of a blind Orangeville-area man whose home suffered a similar fate, following a painstaking 20 years of construction. Nevertheless, in the hours following the event, soldiers from "B" and "F" Companies, The Grey and Simcoe Foresters and from Canadian Forces Base in Borden assembled in Barrie to assist in the canvassing of the worst affected areas of the city. Coincidentally, the latter had barely escaped a tornado itself that day, it having momentarily touched down in the Blackdown Park Training Area before lifting again and passing over hundreds of married quarters. In addition, the Grand Valley library (levelled by an F4 tornado) donated books, and wooden pallets were donated by a local trucking company in Barrie so survivors could salvage their possessions.

Most of Grand Valley was completely rebuilt by August 1986, a little over a year later. The textile plant Albarrie (one of 12 factories completely destroyed by the Barrie tornado) opened its doors once again within the next year. Even so, to this day there are still hints from the past of the tornadoes that day. Some of the wooded areas that were affected are still a twisted mess, and some random debris still remains scattered in the bush to the east of Highway 400 in Barrie. In the end, the price tag from the severe weather in Ontario alone reached an estimated $200 million (in unadjusted Canadian dollars, 1985). Correlating to nearly $390 million in Canadian dollars by today's standard, it was a very expensive disaster indeed. This tornado outbreak ranks among the Southern Ontario tornado outbreak of 2005 and the 1998 Ice Storm as one of the most costly weather disasters to strike Ontario. Climatologists have estimated that the probability of a severe weather outbreak as widespread and catastrophic as this one, occurring this far north and east in North America once again is one in 75,000.

In all, 65 people were killed in Pennsylvania, which remains the highest death toll in a tornado outbreak in Pennsylvania history.