F3 tornado, Salisbury to Pocahontas, Pennsylvania, May 31, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

F3

Date

May 31, 1998

Touchdown

8:50 PM EDT (00:50 UTC)

Path length

13.0 miles (20.9 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

15

Property damage

$4.0 million

County

Somerset County

Touchdown point

39.750, -79.080

Lift-off point

39.730, -78.970

Record number

311

The tornado touched down just east of Mt. Davis and traveled east-southeast into downtown Salisbury. The storm then continued eastward for 8 miles ending east of the town of Pocahontas. The tornado was rated as an F2 (113 to 157 mph) through the town of Salisbury, but probably reached F3 (158 to 206 mph) intensity briefly near Pocohontas. Along the 15 mile path, damages were estimated to reach between $3 million to $4 million. The path length of the tornado was probably close to 15 miles. F0 damage (40-72 mph) was in a swath about 1/2 mile wide, with F2 damage confined to an area about 2 blocks wide in Salisbury. Near Pocohontas, a farmhouse was completely destroyed indicating winds of F3 intensity (158 to 206 mph) in an area about 50 yards wide. Fifteen people were injured from the tornado. One person, a 13 year old female in a van, lost her life when a tree fell onto the vehicle. 150 people were sheltered overnight Sunday. A 51-year old male and 15-year old female died from carbon monoxide poisoning when a portable generator malfunctioned 3 days after the event. The tornado struck downtown Salisbury around 8:50pm. Ten to fifteen businesses were significantly damaged. Siding and parts of roofs were removed from a number of homes, and part of a roof was removed from a church. The roof was completely ripped off of a furniture factory. Several tractor trailers at the factory were overturned.

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.

28 minutes of warning. NWS CTP issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:22 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:32 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.

The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 134 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:48 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.

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

45 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.