Tornado in Pennsylvania, August 16, 1997

Name: Tornado in Pennsylvania, August 16, 1997
Start: 1997-08-16T14:10
End: 1997-08-16T14:15
Location: Pennsylvania

August 16, 1997 · NWS CTP · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

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Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Sullivan

When: August 16, 2:10 PM EST to 2:15 PM EST
Where: Sullivan County, Nordmont
Measured: 1
Rating: F1
Path length: 0.5 mi
Path width: 50 yd
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Coordinates: 41.380, -76.480

41/20/13N, 76/19/37W to 41/20/06N, 76/18/43W. The Ricketts Glen tornado was another example of tornadic winds embedded within a wider area of downburst damage. Downburst damage covered an area of about 3 miles wide from Ganoga Lake southeast to Lake Jean. An eyewitness at Ganoga Lake described a cloud of water being lifted off the surface of the lake. Another told of seeing a catamaran being lifted about 30 feet off the lake surface and thrown towards shore. The tornado appeared to cross Lake Jean and end in a campground. A 15-year old youth was fatally injured there when a tree was blown onto his tent. Other campers in tents narrowly missed injury.

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Tornado, Sullivan	1997-08-16	15	Male	Camping	Direct

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Pennsylvania in 1997 Every state in 1997 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Pennsylvania, 1997 Warnings in Pennsylvania, August 1997

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5613710.