Stats
Path length: 28 miles
Width: 2300 yards
Fatalities: 4
Injuries: 40
Rating: F4
County: Warren, McKean, Elk
Tornado Path
SPC coordinates: Start: 41.63 / -79.03 End: 41.55 / -78.50
Corrected coordinates based on analysis of aerial and satellite imagery:
Start: 41.646169 / -79.004694 End: 41.618929 / -78.481816
Introduction
On May 31, 1985, a violent tornado swept through northwestern Pennsylvania, leaving a trail of devastation across Warren, McKean, and Elk Counties. The storm reached its peak intensity in the Tionesta Scenic Area, where it leveled vast swaths of forest before continuing eastward into the town of Kane, causing widespread destruction to homes, schools, and businesses. With wind speeds reaching high-end F4 levels, the tornado obliterated entire neighborhoods, leaving behind heartbreaking scenes of loss, including the tragic deaths of four people. Over 100 homes were damaged or destroyed, and the storm caused an estimated $15 million in damage, equivalent to $71 million today.
Summary
This large, violent tornado began on the eastern side of Route 948, four miles southeast of Sheffield, in Warren County. Its 2.5 mile path there was confined entirely within the Allegheny National Forest. It crossed into McKean County into the Tionesta Scenic Area, where it annihilated a 1.30-mile (2300-yard) swath of forest. It was also here where the tornado reached peak intensity at high-end F4.
Per Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes, “Forest devastation was so complete in the path’s center that every tree was snapped off at ground level and/or debarked.” Topsoil was scoured from the forest floor and splattered against the debarked trunks. Aerial photos provided by the US Forest Service show that the destruction in the Allegheny National Forest to the west of Kane was just as, if not even stronger than, the more infamous Moshannon State Forest, PA F4, which was occurring simultaneously 40 or so miles to the southeast. The U.S. Forest Service estimated that 90,000 trees were toppled at the Tionesta Scenic Area.
The twister moved into the southern portion of Kane. It uprooted hundreds of trees, many falling onto cars and homes. Some homes were unroofed on Pine Ave. The Kane Middle School had nearly all of its windows busted out, and Hemlock Park was shredded. Milton’s Monuments building, near the middle school, was torn apart. Per the book “Killer Tornados,” a forested area between the middle school and Forest Lawn Cemetery was left as “only tree stumps.”
As the tornado crossed Route 66, windows were shattered and roofs were torn off of houses. Along Laurel and Spruce Avenues, in an area about 200 yards wide, several homes were totally destroyed, and some were swept away. 89-year-old David Kanovsky was severely injured as his Laurel Ave home was wiped out. Sadly he passed away on July 9, 1985 in the Lock Haven Hospital.
Crossing Pennsylvania Avenue, several homes were torn apart, and the vortex hit the Kane Lumber and Fuel Complex, where the roof was torn off, and some walls collapsed. The book “Killer Tornados” reported, “An unidentified resident said she was playing cards when it hit. The group got lawn chairs out to watch. The tornado damaged homes on either side of theirs, but not theirs.” A boat was picked up from a yard on Pennsylvania Ave and carried over a mile away, being found in East Kane.
Elane Bodistow and her family were getting ready to leave the next morning for vacation and were loading the luggage into their car when her husband told her there was a tornado. She reported to the Bradford Era on the 30th anniversary of the twister, “It was dead still, and it sounded like a train coming. but we live next to the railroad tracks. There was no wind. We just got to the bottom of the cellar steps, and it was like a bomb had gone off. I thought we must have lost pieces of siding because I could see out. Everything was a weird green color going by.” The reason she was looking outside, despite being in the basement, was because the house was lifted off its foundation. It came back down and was moved 8” off the foundation. All of the windows were blown out, and glass was embedded in everything.
Entering East Kane, the tornado plowed into the high school, where the west wall of the swimming pool building was torn away. A Vocational-Agriculture building was demolished. Bleachers and goalposts at the football stadium were mangled. A grove of trees just east of the high school was shredded and debarked.
On Pond Street between the Wetmore Township Building and the Kane United Methodist Church, the twister swept away the trailer of 70-year-old Robert Thrush and tragically he was killed instantly. The mangled frame of his mobile home was wrapped around a debarked tree. The funnel then blasted through the Beverly Foote home in East Kane. She, her husband, and their daughter Kim were injured when the house was destroyed. Their younger daughter, Angie, was taking a bath when the storm hit; she and the tub were thrown into the driveway, though Angie was not hurt.
Across the street from the Foote home, the East Kane United Methodist was totally leveled; only the front steps that were made of stone remained. The bell from the church was found about a half mile away. Several more homes were shredded as the twister ripped across Sleepy Hollow and Flickerwood Roads. A ½ mile-wide swath of trees at the core of the mile-wide vortex was mowed over and debarked. Travis Johnson and his girlfriend, Dawn Ardabell, were at Travis’ house on South Settlement Road in an area known as Rocky Ridge. The house was wiped out, and the 17-year-old couple were killed as they were thrown from the wreckage.
Continuing east, the tornado crossed Route 219, a mile north of Burning Well, where it traversed paths with an F2 tornado that had passed through just an hour before. From here, the funnel narrowed and weakened and veered more toward the east-southeast. It moved into the Elk State Park, blowing down trees and entering into the far northeast corner of Elk County. It fizzled out 4 miles northeast of Instanter.
Over 100 homes were damaged or destroyed in Kane and East Kane, and damage totaled $15 million, $4 million of it just to the schools. Factoring in inflation, that would be $71 million in 2024. At least 40 people were injured, and four were killed.
In Loving Memory
Dawn Ardabell, 17
Travis Johnson, 17
David Kanovsky, 89
Robert Thrush, 70
Discrepancies:
We gathered information for this event from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) and National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) Databases, The NWS State College Summary, The NWS State College Tornado Database, Thomas Grazulis’ Significant Tornadoes: 1974-2022 publication, as well as newspaper accounts, and found the following differences:
Path Length:
- The SPC, NCDC, NWS State College Tornado Database, the NWS State College Summary, and Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes list a 29 mile path length.
- By plotting out all known damage as well as examining historical imagery on Google Earth we found a 28 mile path.
Path Width:
- The SPC, NCDC, NWS State CollegeTornado Database, the NWS State College Summary, and Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes list a 1000 yard path width.
- By plotting out all known damage as well as examining historical imagery on Google Earth we found a 2300 yards (1.30 miles) path width.
Sources
The sources compiled in our research for this summary can be found here.
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