Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 1996
F1 tornado, Kunkletown to Snydersville, Pennsylvania, November 8, 1996
From Kunkletown to Snydersville, this F1 tornado ran 10.0 miles across Monroe County on November 8, 1996, touching down at 3:50 PM EST and reaching 67 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $400,000 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
- November 8, 1996
- Touchdown
- 3:50 PM EST (20:50 UTC)
- Path length
- 10.0 miles (16.1 km)
- Path width
- 67 yards (61 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $400,000
- County
- Monroe County
- Touchdown point
- 40.850, -75.430
- Lift-off point
- 40.970, -75.280
- Record number
- 1087
What the Weather Service recorded
A tornado, which had a damage path about 10 miles long, moved across the southwest part of the county from near Kunkletown in Eldred Township to near Syndersville in Hamilton Township. The tornado was not continuously on the ground during its entire lifetime, but did cause wind damage in four townships: Eldred, Ross, southeastern Chestnut Hill and Hamilton. The touch downs were described as brief, but numerous. About 15 homes and a hanger were damaged with numerous trees uprooted. The worst damage occurred around Green View Avenue in northwestern Hamilton Township and around Kunkletown Road in Ross Township. The damage estimate was around $400,000. The tornado strength was estimated as F1 (Winds 73 to 112 mph) on the Fujita Scale.The tornado initially touched down around 350 p.m. near Kunkletown in Eldred Township. Five homes were damaged within the township. Farther northeast in Ross Township along Kunkletown Road, five homes including an unoccupied trailer sustained major damage. In Hamilton Township, the tornado blew the roof off one home and threw it 100 yards away; a closed-in porch from another home imploded and an airplane hanger and several small planes within it were damaged. A tree also fell on and damaged an unoccupied school bus. About 3,000 homes mainly within Ross and Hamilton Townships lost power.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Mt Pocono (MPO), 26 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.
The radar
The Philadelphia radar (KDIX), 134 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:48 UTC.
Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track
Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of November 8, 1996
14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 8 | 5:35 AM EST | F2 | Dodge, GA | 4.0 | 50 | 1 | 6 | $200,000 |
| November 8 | 6:00 AM EST | F1 | Laurens, GA | 4.0 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| November 8 | 8:30 AM EST | F1 | Bedford, PA | 15.0 | 150 | 1 | $500,000 | |
| November 8 | 9:45 AM EST | F0 | Centre, PA | 4.0 | 550 | $100,000 | ||
| November 8 | 9:45 AM EST | F1 | Mifflin, PA | 1.0 | 50 | $40,000 | ||
| November 8 | 10:15 AM EST | F1 | Clinton, PA | 3.0 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| November 8 | 10:20 AM EST | F1 | Lycoming, PA | 1.0 | 150 | $100,000 | ||
| November 8 | 10:20 AM EST | F1 | Lycoming, PA | 2.5 | 500 | $100,000 | ||
| November 8 | 11:15 AM EST | F0 | Charlton, GA | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| November 8 | 12:35 PM EST | F0 | Chenango, NY | 1.2 | 200 | $70,000 | ||
| November 8 | 12:55 PM EST | F0 | Pinellas, FL | 0.1 | 10 | $10,000 | ||
| November 8 | 3:38 PM EST | F2 | Northampton, PA | 2.0 | 67 | 1 | $250,000 | |
| November 8 | 3:45 PM EST | F1 | Baltimore, MD | 3.8 | 100 | 1 | $750,000 | |
| November 8 | 7:25 PM EST | F0 | Bladen, NC | 0.1 | 15 |
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.