Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 1983

F2 tornado, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, May 2, 1983

This F2 tornado ran 9.8 miles across Tioga County on May 2, 1983, touching down at 7:39 PM EDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, 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 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 2, 1983
Touchdown
7:39 PM EDT (23:39 UTC)
Path length
9.8 miles (15.8 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500,000 to $5 million
County
Tioga County
Touchdown point
41.930, -77.450
Lift-off point
41.970, -77.250
Record number
238

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.

Buffalo Intl Airport, NY (KBUF), 12:00Z

11.7 hours before the tornado, 155 km from the path. May 2, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Buffalo Intl Airport, NY at 12:00Z on 1983-05-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -169, lifted condensation level 647 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Buffalo Intl Airport, NY at 12:00Z on 1983-05-02The 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 246 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-169 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
647 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
246 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
217 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Buffalo Intl Airport, NY (KBUF), 00:00Z

0.3 hours after it, 155 km from the path. May 3, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Buffalo Intl Airport, NY at 00:00Z on 1983-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 156 joules per kilogram, CIN -64, lifted condensation level 1256 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Buffalo Intl Airport, NY at 00:00Z on 1983-05-03The 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 263 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 knots.1939587897117136156175Sfc1 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
156 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-64 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1256 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
263 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
564 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Elmira / Corning (ELM), 44 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:00 UTC7059200° 12 kt1005.4
23:00 UTC7160210° 12 kt1005.1
23:38 UTC200° 10 kt1003.7
00:00 UTC7061160° 11 kt1004.7TSRA
00:25 UTC330° 4 kt1003.4
01:00 UTC6358300° 3 kt1003

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1983 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 2, 1983

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 212:05 PM EDTF3Macomb, MI23.02003$5 million to $50 million
May 212:37 PM EDTF2Henry, OH5.083$500,000 to $5 million
May 212:49 PM EDTF3Wood, OH5.0100122$5 million to $50 million
May 212:10 PM CDTF1White, IL0.230$5,000 to $50,000
May 22:20 PM EDTF2Huron, OH2.0502$50,000 to $500,000
May 23:00 PM ESTF0Pike, IN0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 24:10 PM EDTF1Richland, OH10.0100$50,000 to $500,000
May 24:20 PM EDTF1Kenton, KY0.520$5,000 to $50,000
May 24:45 PM EDTF2Erie, PA1.033$50,000 to $500,000
May 24:55 PM EDTF3Cuyahoga, OH12.0100125$5 million to $50 million
May 25:00 PM EDTF0Crawford, PA1.033$5,000 to $50,000
May 25:05 PM EDTF3Chautauqua, NY28.04502$500,000 to $5 million
May 25:45 PM EDTF1Ross, OH6.0833$50,000 to $500,000
May 26:27 PM EDTF1Fayette, OH11.083$50,000 to $500,000
May 28:15 PM EDTF3Chemung, NY15.03006$500,000 to $5 million
May 28:15 PM EDTF3Tioga, NY2.08801$500,000 to $5 million
May 29:15 PM EDTF3Cayuga, NY20.02001$500,000 to $5 million
May 29:29 PM EDTF3Oswego, NY3.0150$50,000 to $500,000
May 210:30 PM EDTF3Oneida, NY3.0450$5 million to $50 million
May 212:16 AM CDTF0Desha, AR0.150under $50

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.