What were you doing on May 31, 1985? Preparing for the end of the school year? Were you and your parents lining up summer vacation plans?
For me, it was a Friday night where the prime television shows were not running so no Dukes or Knight Rider. In fact, my dad had turned in exceptionally early for the night around 7 PM. Normally, he would have been up with us turning through the few cable channels (before cable boxes) we had to land on something to watch while snacking on some chips or popcorn.
Located nearly in the center of the state of Pennsylvania, the wind had begun to pick up a bit and my mom had the local radio station on, 900 AM-WCPA. This was another oddity as she normally only listened during the day or in the early mornings in the winter season to catch the "Operation Snow Watch" alerts. She pulled out a handful of board and card games as the winds began to pick up.
At this point in time, I am 9 years old along with my sister who is 6 which means we would have been likely playing Candyland, Chutes 'N Ladders, Sorry, maybe Uno and Yahtzee to pass the time and incorporate my sister. As the gameplay continued on, I remember hearing the wind picking up with the rain intensifying but was numb to the fact of how severe the weather was. In fact, still at this time I am not at all captivated by the radio nor can I recall the weather alerts. For us, it was a different, yet fun family game night for us with the sounds of the wind and rain as background noise.
While I am devoid of what is going on outside my childhood home along Dorey Street in Clearfield, PA, a turbulent, weather event is striking Canada and the Northeastern United States wherein 43 confirmed tornadoes coupled with numerous severe thunderstorms are ravaging the landscapes. The event is considered "the deadliest tornado outbreak of the 1980s" (1). This outbreak caused over $600 million in property damage, over 1,000 injuries, and killed 89 people.
It is now Saturday, June 1, 1985. As a 9 year old and typically the first up on a Saturday morning, I normally would have sat to anchor myself to the Saturday Morning Cartoons. Instead, I remember the curiosity of hearing the wind and rain from the evening prior so I detoured out to our front door to see what occurred. There was a large limb laying across Dorey Street. My home was positioned near an alleyway with the opposite block's alleyway not quite in line with ours. This limb would have permitted vehicles to traverse the alleyways, but not the main Dorey Street.
While the limb stunned me, I walked out onto the steps to see what other damage occurred. Dorey Street was littered with limbs and countless leaf debris, yet I do not recall a home or even a car damaged. I recall going back into my home and then looking out our sliding glass door in the kitchen to our backyard. The frail fence around the garden had toppled, but our garden was spared from any damage. Our pear tree and many of the property line trees seemed to have stood up to the storm.
Fast forward later in the day, one of my parent's decided we needed to watch the afternoon news from WTAJ-TV 10 which was one of two major local news stations in my area. Again at 9 years old, I was not too intrigued with all of the news and the weather reports of what occurred until the news turned to Parker Dam State Park. This state park was a common campground where we vacationed in our Starcraft pop-up; swimming in the beach before the dam, fishing along the roadside, hiking the former logging trails, and taking tours of various park show and tells of the animals and history of the park.
Images of the toppled and ripped trees appeared onto the television. Then, there was a log cabin where a local boy scout troop cowered in to seek shelter from the F4 tornado that traveled approximately 60 miles in total.
An incredible event in 1985 that turned out to be the largest weather event that remains as a weather footprint in history. This is one of the events from the 1980s that still resonates to this day. It impacted our area and scarred it, yet we were able to press forward.
(Video Courtesy: KDKA via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bqqo0Gqy6A)
Where were you on May 31, 1985? Were you involved in this weather phenomenon (manamana)?
(1) US Department of Commerce, N. (n.d.). May 31, 1985 Tornado Outbreak: 35th Anniversary. Www.Weather.Gov. Retrieved August 24, 2026, from https://www.weather.gov/ctp/TornadoOutbreak_May311985
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