F1 tornado, Eagles Mere to Nordmont, Pennsylvania, August 16, 1997

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F1

Date

August 16, 1997

Touchdown

3:05 PM EDT (19:05 UTC)

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Sullivan County

Touchdown point

41.420, -76.580

Lift-off point

41.420, -76.580

Record number

483

41/24/39N, 76/40/51W to 41/25N, 76/35W. Woman age 45 was injured by falling tree while hiking near High Knob in Wyoming State Forest.

41/24N, 76/37W to 41/24N, 76/35W. A large area of downburst winds struck sections of Sullivan County from Hillsgrove east across Eagles Mere to Laporte and Dushore. While most of the damage was straight line wind, at least two locations in the Eagles Mere area had evidence of rotation indicative of a tornado. The first path with apparent rotation began near High Knob in Wyoming State Forest. The storm moved east taking down trees on an intermittent path for 5 miles into Eagles Mere.The second path with evident rotation crossed Route 42 north of the airport and moved east crossing Laporte Avenue on the south side of the borough of Eagles Mere. Again, although most of the damage was downburst in origin, there were small areas with good indication of rotation in the winds.Eyewitness accounts told of rotating debris, and several remarked of hearing of funnel cloud reports, but no visual witness of a funnel was located. Nearly all of the damage was to trees, although one tree fell and demolished a vehicle at the beach on the north side of Eagles Mere Lake. Fortunately, all boats on the lake had been called in because of the early alerts, and trips on the motor launch that carries passengers around the lake had been suspended for the day because of the threat of severe weather.

41/20/13N, 76/19/37W to 41/20/06N, 76/18/43W. The Ricketts Glen tornado was another example of tornadic winds embedded within a wider area of downburst damage. Downburst damage covered an area of about 3 miles wide from Ganoga Lake southeast to Lake Jean. An eyewitness at Ganoga Lake described a cloud of water being lifted off the surface of the lake. Another told of seeing a catamaran being lifted about 30 feet off the lake surface and thrown towards shore. The tornado appeared to cross Lake Jean and end in a campground. A 15-year old youth was fatally injured there when a tree was blown onto his tent. Other campers in tents narrowly missed injury.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS CTP issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:56 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:45 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms 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.

Williamsport (IPT), 35 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 1997 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.