Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 1994

F0 tornado, Clifford, Pennsylvania, August 14, 1994

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Susquehanna County on August 14, 1994, touching down at 3:30 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
August 14, 1994
Touchdown
3:30 PM EDT (19:30 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Susquehanna County
Touchdown point
41.650, -75.600
Record number
879

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado briefly touched down along Pennsylvania State Route 106 in Clifford. There were several eyewitness reports including a SKYWARN Spotter who saw it. A shanty was lifted into a tree. Shingles were torn off one house and a large hay bale was moved over 100 feet. No injuries were reported.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Albany, NY (KALB), 12:00Z

7.5 hours before the tornado, 186 km from the path. August 14, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 1994-08-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 86 joules per kilogram, CIN -20, lifted condensation level 739 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, Albany, NY at 12:00Z on 1994-08-14The 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 134 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 71 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
86 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-20 J/kg
Surface CAPE
356 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
739 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
71 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
134 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
135 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Albany, NY (KALB), 00:00Z

4.5 hours after it, 186 km from the path. August 15, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 1994-08-15Temperature 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 -63182, lifted condensation level 1063 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Albany, NY at 00:00Z on 1994-08-15The 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 -33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
-63182 J/kg
Surface CAPE
49 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1063 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AVP), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:00 UTC7070240° 8 kt1010.2-SHRA FG
19:00 UTC7070230° 12 kt1009.5-SHRA
20:00 UTC7070220° 10 kt1009.1-RA
21:00 UTC6969240° 12 kt171008.8

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1994 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 14, 1994

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 141:00 AM CDTF0, FL0.110
August 147:40 AM CDTF0Cameron, TX0.2100
August 142:10 PM EDTF1Montgomery, PA1.0100

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.