F1 tornado, Terrytown to Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, June 2, 1998

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

June 2, 1998

Touchdown

9:45 PM EDT (01:45 UTC)

Path length

6.0 miles (9.7 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$400,000

County

Bradford County

Touchdown point

41.670, -76.280

Lift-off point

41.670, -76.220

Record number

1141

For the second time in three days, significant severe weather including tornadoes affected northeastern Pennsylvania. The primary focusing mechanisms were a strong mid level shortwave and surface cold front that approached the region during the evening of the 2nd. Strongly veering wind profiles that increased with height contributed significantly to the development of tornadic supercells. Two long tracked supercells produced tornadic damage across northeastern Pennsylvania during this event. The first tornado touched down in southwestern Susquehanna county in Auburn towship just after 9 pm EDT. This tornado tracked along a 12 mile path through Springville and Lathrop townships. Several mobile homes were damaged or destroyed and the roof of a small storage building was torn away. The twister also cut down scores of trees along the way. Its intensity was rated as F1. Fortunately, no injuries resulted. The other twister tracked along approximately a 35 mile path from extreme southeastern Bradford county across the length of northern Wyoming county and into northwestern Lackawanna county before weakening. The most devastation occurred in the small vacation community of Lake Carey in Wyoming county. The tornado strengthened to F3 intensity at Lake Carey and killed two people and injured a total of fifteen. More than 40 homes immediately surrounding the lake were either heavily damaged or destroyed. Additional residences were damaged or leveled further to the east through East Lemon township in northern Wyoming county. Isolated structural damage and considerable tree damage was the rule from Terry township in Bradford county eastward to just west of Lake Carey and also from East Lemon township eastward to near Lackawanna State Park where the tornado finally dissipated. In all, over 50 homes were damaged or destroyed and total damage estimates in the three county area exceeded three million dollars. Other smaller scale bow echo complexes produced widespread wind damage in the form of downed trees and power lines primarily across the northern tier counties and sections of the Poconos. Portions of Bradford, Susquehanna, and Wayne counties were without power for most of the night as electrical crews could not keep up with reports of downed wires. The most severely damaged areas including the Lake Carey vicinity needed assistance from the National Gaurd to clean up excess debris and help with repairs. Much of northeastern Pennsylvania qualified for federal disaster assistance.

A supercell thunderstorm became tornadic over southeastern portions of the county in Terry township. Eyewitness reports and damage surveys indicate that the twister first touched down just east of Robwood mountain and just west of State Route 2015 around 945 pm EDT. At this location, a mobile home was knocked off its foundation about 8 feet and sustained heavy damage on its front side. Fortunately for the two occupants who were inside the structure when the tornado struck, a farm vehicle, pickup truck, and storage shed all acted to stop the forward momentum of the trailer and prevent it from rolling down a fairly steep hill just ahead. Another storage building just north of the mobile home was severely damaged with its roof completely torn off and some metal beams removed from the siding. As the tornadic cell continued eastward, the funnel appeared to elevate for a time with sporadic damage at tree top level for about a mile downstream. Once the storm crossed just east of Billetts Pond, it descended to flatten a large barn. Debris was scattered in all directions from where the barn once stood with a large section of the roof thrown 200-300 yards downwind. Meanwhile, a newly built home with a large rear deck only 150 yards or so from the barn sustained relatively minor damage. Further to the east through Wyalusing and Tuscarora townships, the damage path became somewhat discontinuous once again and was confined mainly to hilltop sections with trees sheared off. Structural damage was not seen in these areas as they were sparsely populated. From the spot where the twister first touched down in Terry township eastward to the Wyoming county line, the length of the damage path was about 6 miles. The widths varied from 200 to 400 yards. Emergency management officials tallied total damages at just under a half million dollars.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS BGM issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:37 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:25 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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:55 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 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.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AVP), 58 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Binghamton radar (KBGM), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:45 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are

36 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.