The 1985 Tornado Outbreak
On the last day of May 1985, an F5 tornado crossed from Ohio into Pennsylvania — the only F5 that state has ever recorded, and the farthest east an F5 has ever been surveyed in America. It was the deadly centerpiece of an outbreak that had no business happening where it did.
The 1985 tornado outbreak killed about 90 people on May 31, 1985, when roughly 43 tornadoes tore across Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario, Canada. Pennsylvania took the worst of it — about 65 deaths, still the deadliest tornado outbreak in the state's history. It was the deadliest tornado outbreak anywhere in the 1980s.
What sets it apart isn't just the toll. When I pulled the NOAA Storm Prediction Center archive and sorted all 60 F5 and EF5 tornadoes the United States has recorded since 1950 by longitude, the Newton Falls–Niles–Wheatland tornado of May 31, 1985 came out on top: it is the farthest east an F5 has ever touched down in America. And it's the only F5 Pennsylvania has ever seen. Violent tornadoes belong to the Plains and the Deep South; this one detonated in steel country.
A note on the numbers below: our SPC database returns 30 US tornadoes and 876 injuries for that day, and we use it for the tornado counts, Fujita ratings and F5 path. The geographic death toll (PA 65, Ohio 11, New York 2, Ontario ~12) comes from the NWS and contemporaneous surveys, because the SPC archive credits a tornado that crosses a state line to the state where it began — which would misplace the Wheatland deaths.
The easternmost F5 in American history
Late in the afternoon of May 31, a supercell dropped a tornado near Newton Falls, Ohio. It grew into an F5 as it churned northeast through Niles, flattening the Niles Park Plaza shopping complex, then crossed the state line into Wheatland and Hermitage, Pennsylvania — still at F5 strength — where it destroyed a steel-frame plant and scoured asphalt off parking lots. By the end of its 47-mile path it had killed 18 people and injured 310.
Here is the part the reference sites usually miss. The United States has recorded exactly 60 F5/EF5 tornadoes since 1950 in the SPC archive — the rarest, most violent storms on Earth. Plot their starting points and they cluster across the Plains and the South: Oklahoma, Alabama, Kansas, Texas. The 1985 tornado sits alone at the eastern edge of the entire map. Nothing else in the F5 record has touched down that far east. For context, the next-easternmost F5 is another Ohio storm, from the 1968 outbreak, and after that you're already back into Michigan and the western Ohio Valley.
It also gave Ohio one of only three F5 tornadoes in its entire history — the other two being the 1968 outbreak and the 1974 Super Outbreak Xenia tornado — and handed Pennsylvania the only F5 it has ever had. You can browse every one of those top-rated storms on our EF5 tornado record page.
The seven violent tornadoes
In an average year the whole country records a couple of dozen violent (F4/F5) tornadoes across twelve months. May 31, 1985 produced seven in the US in a single evening — one F5 and six F4s — every one of them in the Great Lakes and Northeast. Here they are, straight from the SPC database:
| Rating | Where | Deaths |
|---|---|---|
| F5 | Newton Falls–Niles, OH → Wheatland–Hermitage, PA | 18 |
| F4 | NE Ohio (OH/PA line) | 16 |
| F4 | Ashtabula County, OH | 12 |
| F4 | Mercer / Venango Co., PA | 7 |
| F4 | Forest / Clarion Co., PA | 4 |
| F4 | NW Pennsylvania | 0 |
| F4 | Moshannon State Forest, PA | 0 |
Look at the bottom row. One of those F4s tracked 69 miles and grew nearly two miles wide (3,330 yards) across the Moshannon State Forest in north-central Pennsylvania — one of the longest tornado paths in the state's record — yet killed no one, because it ran through timber instead of towns. It is a stark reminder that a tornado's toll is written as much by where it goes as by how strong it is. Compare the widest and longest-tracked storms on our strongest & largest tornadoes ranking.
An outbreak out of place
Ask people to picture a tornado outbreak and they think of Oklahoma or Alabama. They're not wrong — Dixie Alley and the southern Plains own the violent-tornado record. That's exactly why 1985 was so lethal. Northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania sit at the far northeastern fringe of tornado country. Residents had lived their whole lives without seeing anything like this; there was no muscle memory for it, no expectation that a Friday evening in late May could bring a two-mile-wide wedge.
Meteorologically it was a textbook, if rare, setup for the region: a strong late-May cold front colliding with unusually warm, humid air pulled north ahead of it, under a fast jet stream that gave the storms the spin and the speed to stay violent for dozens of miles. Watch #211, the tornado watch issued that day, has since become a case study in how a “out of place” environment can still produce a first-magnitude disaster.
Where the deaths happened
Pennsylvania bore the brunt: about 65 deaths from roughly 21 tornadoes, the worst tornado disaster in the Commonwealth's history. Across the border, Ontario's toll — centered on Barrie, north of Toronto — made it one of the deadliest tornado days in Canadian history too.
| State / Province | Tornadoes | Deaths | Weather records |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania | 21 | 65 | Pennsylvania records |
| Ohio | 11 | 11 | Ohio records |
| New York | 2 | 2 | New York records |
| Ontario, Canada | ~13 | 12 | — |
Tornado counts here follow the SPC/press tallies for the outbreak; the death figures are the geographic tolls from NWS and contemporaneous surveys. For the long-term climate of the region the storms crossed, see our Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York records pages.
How the 1985 outbreak ranks
By raw death toll it sits below the giants — the 1925 Tri-State Tornado, the 1974 Super Outbreak, and Palm Sunday 1965. But watch the region column. Every other entry is a Plains, Midwest or Deep South event. The 1985 outbreak is the only one in the deadliest tier that struck the Great Lakes and Northeast — which is precisely what makes it the outlier of the modern tornado record.
| Event | Tornadoes | Deaths |
|---|---|---|
| 1925 Tri-State (single tornado) | 1 | 695 |
| 1974 Super Outbreak | 148 | 319 |
| 1965 Palm Sunday Outbreak | 55 | 266 |
| 1985 U.S.–Canada Outbreak | ~43 | ~90 |
| 2011 Super Outbreak | 349 | 324 |
For the full picture, see our deadliest tornadoes in US history and biggest tornado outbreaks rankings, or track this year on the 2026 tornado season page.
Frequently asked questions
How many people died in the 1985 tornado outbreak?
About 90 people were killed on May 31, 1985 — roughly 88 to 90 across Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario, Canada. Pennsylvania was hit hardest with about 65 deaths, making it the deadliest tornado outbreak in Pennsylvania history. Ontario lost about 12, Ohio 11, and New York 2. More than 1,000 people were injured.
Has Pennsylvania ever had an F5 tornado?
Yes — exactly once. The Newton Falls–Niles–Wheatland tornado of May 31, 1985 began in Ohio and crossed into Wheatland and Hermitage, Pennsylvania at F5 intensity, with winds estimated above 260 mph. It is the only F5 ever recorded in Pennsylvania and, per the NOAA SPC archive, the easternmost F5/EF5 tornado in the United States since 1950.
Where did the 1985 tornado outbreak happen?
It struck the northeastern quarter of the country: Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, plus Ontario, Canada. That is what made it so unusual — violent tornadoes are common in the Plains and the Deep South, but rare in the Great Lakes and Northeast. May 31, 1985 remains the worst tornado outbreak in both Ohio and Pennsylvania history.
How many tornadoes were in the 1985 outbreak?
Roughly 43 tornadoes touched down across the four states and provinces on May 31, 1985. The NOAA SPC database records 30 of them in the United States (Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York); the rest were in Ontario. Of the US tornadoes, one was an F5 and six were F4s — an extraordinary concentration of violent tornadoes for that part of the country.
Why was the 1985 outbreak so deadly?
Three things stacked up: the tornadoes were unusually violent (an F5 and six F4s), they hit a region unaccustomed to them where fewer people knew what to do, and they arrived in the evening and after dark. Warnings in 1985 were also far less advanced than today’s Doppler-radar, cell-phone-alert system.
Explore the tornado record yourself
Every tornado in this article comes from the NOAA SPC database, which we've made browsable. Map any state, filter by rating, or look up the historical weather on the day these storms hit: