Tornado in Pennsylvania, May 31, 1998

Name: Tornado in Pennsylvania, May 31, 1998
Start: 1998-05-31T16:20
End: 1998-05-31T16:25
Location: Pennsylvania

May 31, 1998 · 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, Lycoming

When: May 31, 4:20 PM EST to 4:25 PM EST
Where: Lycoming County, Buttonwood
Rating: F1
Path length: 0.5 mi
Path width: 440 yd
Reported by: EMERGENCY MANAGER
Coordinates: 41.500, -77.130

An F1 tornado touched down on Sugar Hill just west of Buttonwood, traveled east across Route 15 passing through Buttonwood. A shed at a hunting lodge on Sugar hill was destroyed and a roof was blown off a lumberyard building in Buttonwood. Intermittent tree damage continued east for 15 miles into Sullivan County.

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 1998 Every state in 1998 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Pennsylvania, 1998 Warnings in Pennsylvania, May 1998

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: 5650433.