Ohio and Pennsylvania Tornado Outbreak
One of the severe storm disasters on NOAA’s billion-dollar list: $1.8 billion in losses at 2024 prices ($600 million at the time) and 89 deaths.
What the offices filed during it
The 26 most significant severe storm episodes filed in these dates, colored by kind.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Losses, 2024 dollars
- $1.8 billion
- Losses at the time
- $600 million
- Deaths
- 89
The losses and deaths are NCEI’s, counting everything the disaster did. The episodes below are only what the Weather Service filed in its Storm Events record, which counts damage differently and often not at all, so the two never add up and are shown apart.
By state, as filed
| State | Events | Deaths | Injuries | Damage filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ohio | 43 | 11 | 340 | $838 million |
| Pennsylvania | 80 | 67 | 526 | $378 million |
| Iowa | 20 | 2 | 25 | $25 million |
| New York | 29 | 0 | 10 | $5.3 million |
| Wisconsin | 10 | 0 | 2 | $3.8 million |
| Minnesota | 10 | 0 | 1 | $2.5 million |
| Missouri | 24 | 0 | 5 | $750,000 |
| North Dakota | 6 | 0 | 0 | $25,000 |
| Montana | 2 | 0 | 0 | $3,000 |
| South Dakota | 7 | 0 | 0 | $250 |
| Oklahoma | 25 | 0 | 0 | |
| Texas | 12 | 0 | 0 | |
| Michigan | 10 | 0 | 0 | |
| Mississippi | 7 | 0 | 4 | |
| Kansas | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| Virginia | 4 | 0 | 0 | |
| Indiana | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| New Jersey | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Kentucky | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| New Mexico | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Tennessee | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| West Virginia | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Episode by episode
- Damaging Winds in Mississippi, May 29, 1985
- Hail in Kansas, May 30, 1985
- Tornadoes and Hail in Missouri, May 30, 1985
- Hail in Michigan, May 30, 1985
- Tornadoes and Hail in South Dakota, May 30, 1985
- Tornadoes and Damaging Winds in North Dakota, May 30, 1985
- Tornadoes in Montana, May 30, 1985
- Tornadoes and Hail in Minnesota, May 30, 1985
- Tornadoes and Hail in Iowa, May 30, 1985
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Ohio, May 30, 1985
- Tornadoes and Hail in Wisconsin, May 30, 1985
- Damaging Wind in New York, May 30, 1985
- Tornadoes and Hail in Pennsylvania, May 31, 1985
- Hail in Michigan, May 31, 1985
- Hail in Indiana, May 31, 1985
- Tornadoes and Hail in Ohio, May 31, 1985
- Hail in Kentucky, May 31, 1985
- Tornadoes and Hail in New York, May 31, 1985
- Hail in Virginia, May 31, 1985
- Damaging Wind in New Mexico, May 31, 1985
- Hail in Texas, May 31, 1985
- Damaging Wind in Tennessee, May 31, 1985
- Hail in West Virginia, May 31, 1985
- Hail in New Jersey, May 31, 1985
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Oklahoma, June 1, 1985
- Tornado and Hail in Texas, June 1, 1985
More
Every billion-dollar disasterEvery storm of 1985Tornadoes in 1985
Sources
NOAA NCEI, U.S. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters (2025), https://doi.org/10.25921/stkw-7w73, and the Storm Events Database for the episodes.