Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 1962

F2 tornado, Bucks and Mercer counties, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, May 24, 1962

This F2 tornado ran 16.6 miles across Bucks and Mercer counties on May 24, 1962, touching down at 2:30 PM GMT-5 and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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 mph

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
May 24, 1962
Touchdown
2:30 PM GMT-5 (19:30 UTC)
Path length
16.6 miles (26.7 km)
Path width
300 yards (274 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Bucks and Mercer counties
Touchdown point
40.320, -74.950
Lift-off point
40.280, -74.620
Record number
209

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.

New York/Jf Kenn, NY (KJFK), 12:00Z

7.5 hours before the tornado, 100 km from the path. May 24, 1962.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, New York/Jf Kenn, NY at 12:00Z on 1962-05-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -55311, lifted condensation level 3572 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, New York/Jf Kenn, NY at 12:00Z on 1962-05-24The 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 18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-55311 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3572 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

New York/Jf Kenn, NY (KJFK), 00:00Z

4.5 hours after it, 100 km from the path. May 25, 1962.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, New York/Jf Kenn, NY at 00:00Z on 1962-05-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -83082, lifted condensation level 3548 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, New York/Jf Kenn, NY at 00:00Z on 1962-05-25The 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 26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 knots.193958Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-83082 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3548 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
55 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1962 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 24, 1962

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 245:30 PM GMT-4F3South Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT11.6120150$500,000 to $5 million
May 245:37 PM GMT-5F2Reno, KS0.1102
May 246:00 PM GMT-5F3Reno, KS0.1102$50 to $500
May 246:00 PM GMT-5F1Reno, KS0.1102$50 to $500
May 246:15 PM GMT-5F2Jackson, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 246:16 PM GMT-5F2Jackson, OK0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 246:25 PM GMT-5F0Jackson, OK0.110
May 246:25 PM GMT-5F0Jackson, OK0.110
May 247:15 PM GMT-5F0Lyon, KS0.110$500 to $5,000
May 247:15 PM GMT-5F0Comanche, OK0.110
May 247:30 PM GMT-5F3Harvey, KS18.810$50,000 to $500,000
May 246:30 PM GMT-7F1Scotts Bluff, NE0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 248:32 PM GMT-5F0Tillman, OK0.110
May 248:32 PM GMT-5F0Tillman, OK0.110
May 247:00 PM GMT-7F0Uinta, WY0.110$500 to $5,000
May 2412:13 AM GMT-5F0Kiowa, OK0.110

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.