Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 1967

F2 tornado, Perry County, Pennsylvania, September 21, 1967

This F2 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Perry County on September 21, 1967, touching down at 7:00 PM GMT-4 and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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
September 21, 1967
Touchdown
7:00 PM GMT-4 (23:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Perry County
Touchdown point
40.420, -77.180
Record number
792

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.

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 12:00Z

11.0 hours before the tornado, 165 km from the path. September 21, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 1967-09-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 706 joules per kilogram, CIN -87, lifted condensation level 625 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, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 1967-09-21The 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 100 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.1939Sfc1 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
706 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-87 J/kg
Surface CAPE
35 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
625 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
100 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
110 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.9
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 00:00Z

1.0 hours after it, 165 km from the path. September 22, 1967.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 1967-09-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 378 joules per kilogram, CIN -50, lifted condensation level 992 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, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 1967-09-22The 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 183 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 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
378 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-50 J/kg
Surface CAPE
72 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
992 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
183 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
207 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1967 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 21, 1967

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 214:00 AM GMT-4F1Palm Beach, FL0.110$500 to $5,000
September 213:00 AM GMT-5F1Jackson, TX0.517$500 to $5,000
September 215:00 AM GMT-5F1Fayette, TX0.533$50 to $500
September 216:00 AM GMT-5F2Colorado, TX1.033$500 to $5,000
September 217:15 AM GMT-5F1Wharton, TX0.110$500 to $5,000
September 217:15 AM GMT-5F0Burnet, TX0.110
September 218:10 AM GMT-5F0Harris, TX1.033$50 to $500
September 219:00 AM GMT-5F0Liberty, TX0.110
September 219:25 AM GMT-5F0Jefferson, TX0.117
September 2110:25 AM GMT-5F2Harris, TX2.0503$500 to $5,000
September 2111:45 AM GMT-4F1Clinton, MI0.117$50 to $500
September 2111:00 AM GMT-5F1Jim Wells, TX0.110$50 to $500
September 2111:00 AM GMT-5F1Jim Wells, TX0.110$50 to $500
September 2111:45 AM GMT-5F1Orange, TX1.033
September 2111:47 AM GMT-5F1Jefferson, TX1.0331$50 to $500
September 2112:10 PM GMT-5F0Brazoria, TX0.110
September 2112:39 PM GMT-5F0Jefferson, TX0.133$50 to $500
September 211:00 PM GMT-5F1Travis, TX0.110$500 to $5,000
September 212:00 PM GMT-5F0Goliad, TX0.110
September 214:00 PM GMT-5F0Goliad, TX0.110
September 214:00 PM GMT-5F1Karnes, TX0.110$500 to $5,000
September 214:00 PM GMT-5F0Brewster, TX0.133
September 215:00 PM GMT-5F0San Patricio, TX0.110
September 218:36 PM GMT-5F0Wilson, TX0.110

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.