Tornado in Pennsylvania, May 19, 1997

Name: Tornado in Pennsylvania, May 19, 1997
Start: 1997-05-19T17:45
End: 1997-05-19T17:50
Location: Pennsylvania

May 19, 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: 0
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, Clinton

When: May 19, 5:45 PM EST to 5:50 PM EST
Where: Clinton County, Renovo
Measured: 1
Rating: F1
Path length: 5 mi
Path width: 50 yd
Coordinates: 41.330, -77.770

2W. Renovo to 3E. RenovoAn F1 tornado (73-112 mph) moved through the town of Renovo between 6:45 p.m. and 6:50 p.m. EDT on the evening of Monday, May 19, 1997. Hundreds of trees were downed; the roofs of a hotel, a supermarket, a home and several other structures were damaged. A tin roof was peeled off a railroad car maintenance building now being used as an industrial development center. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the funnel cloud and people talked of seeing rotation in the debris.Sporadic damage associated with the storm extended along a path of nearly 15 miles beginning around Bitumen west of Renovo, continued through Renovo east to Farwell. width of the damage was up to 1/4 mile in spots, but the tornado damage was probably confined to only a small portion of the path. Damage was confined to the lower elevations of the river valley from the north facing slopes of the mountains into the valley floor.

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, May 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: 5605069.