Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 1993
F1 tornado, Bear Creek, Pennsylvania, April 16, 1993
This F1 tornado ran 2.1 miles across Luzerne County on April 16, 1993, touching down at 3:20 PM EDT and reaching 400 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- April 16, 1993
- Touchdown
- 3:20 PM EDT (19:20 UTC)
- Path length
- 2.1 miles (3.4 km)
- Path width
- 400 yards (366 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000 to $500,000
- County
- Luzerne County
- Touchdown point
- 41.200, -75.780
- Record number
- 137
What the Weather Service recorded
Two mobile homes were destroyed and several summer cottages suffered heavy damage, including being lifted from their foundation and moved several feet. Numerous large trees were twisted and uprooted in moist soil and numerous power lines were brought down. A dog and cat were killed. The cat was reported blown off the porch and hurled into an adjacent yard. There were no human fatalities or injuries. The estimated storm damage ranged from $150,000-$200,000.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AVP), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1993 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 16, 1993
8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 16 | 8:30 AM EDT | F1 | Fauquier, VA | 1.2 | 80 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| April 16 | 9:00 AM EDT | F0 | Vance, NC | 0.2 | 10 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| April 16 | 3:00 PM EDT | F1 | Queen Anne's, MD | 0.5 | 33 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| April 16 | 8:25 PM EDT | F0 | Loudoun, VA | 0.7 | 30 | $500 to $5,000 | ||
| April 16 | 8:35 PM EDT | F1 | Loudoun, VA | 1.7 | 60 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| April 16 | 8:45 PM EDT | F0 | Snyder, PA | 0.2 | 30 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| April 16 | 9:00 PM EDT | F0 | Fauquier, VA | 0.8 | 50 | $500 to $5,000 | ||
| April 16 | 9:40 PM EDT | F1 | Northumberland, PA | 0.2 | 30 | $5,000 to $50,000 |
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.