Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 1981

F1 tornado, Mahoning County, Ohio, June 22, 1981

This F1 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Mahoning County on June 22, 1981, touching down at 7:50 AM EDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 6, and did $500,000 to $5 million of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
June 22, 1981
Touchdown
7:50 AM EDT (11:50 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
6
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Mahoning County
Touchdown point
41.020, -80.950
Record number
509

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 00:00Z

11.8 hours before the tornado, 99 km from the path. June 22, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 1981-06-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 123 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 699 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 1981-06-22The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 93 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
123 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
157 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
699 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
172 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 12:00Z

0.2 hours after it, 99 km from the path. June 22, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 1981-06-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 992 joules per kilogram, CIN -57, lifted condensation level 647 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 1981-06-22The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 492 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
992 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-57 J/kg
Surface CAPE
262 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
647 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
492 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
516 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.9
Supercell composite
13.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Youngstown (YNG), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
11:00 UTC7165260° 17 kt241000.3SHRA
12:00 UTC7060260° 13 kt1002
13:00 UTC7262260° 14 kt1002.4

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1981 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 22, 1981

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 2210:02 AM CDTF1Barton, MO3.650$5,000 to $50,000
June 221:25 PM EDTF1Cambria, PA0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 223:30 PM EDTF2Strafford, NH8.740$500,000 to $5 million
June 222:45 PM CDTF2Orleans Parish, LA2.320$5,000 to $50,000
June 224:00 PM EDTF3Worcester, MA7.11673$5,000 to $50,000
June 2210:00 PM MDTF1Roosevelt, NM0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 229:15 PM PDTF1Spokane, WA0.110$50 to $500

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.