Tornado experts share their perspectives on 1985 outbreak

"A very historic event, not just for this area, but the country as a whole," said Dr. Greg Forbes, world renowned severe weather expert.

No climatic force on earth matches the violence of an F5 tornado.
40 years ago today - May 31, 1985 - we here in The Valley saw that violence for ourselves.

"We knew it was going to be a severe weather day," said Forbes during a presentation Saturday.

On that fateful Friday in 1985, Forbes, then a meteorology professor at Penn State, had been gearing up for a conference in a couple days.
Within hours, the worst tornado outbreak this area has ever known disrupted his preparation.
His mentor Dr. Ted Fujita, who invented the scale used to classify tornadoes, sent him to northeast Ohio to map out the track of the Niles-Wheatland F5 from above.

"The one memory that comes to mind is seeing those crushed petroleum storage tanks (along Warren Avenue in Niles)," said Forbes. "Those are among the most dramatic damage that I've seen from any tornado."

Saturday's presentation by Dr. Forbes and Jen Narramore, one of his students at Penn State, drew an overflow crowd at the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library.

Narramore's website Tornado Talk revisits both notable tornadoes and the lives they touched.
She and Dr. Forbes left encouraged that so many wanted to learn about such a tragic day.

"I hope folks are prepared and that's my hope with Tornado Talk, that we can continue to highlight these stories and that folks will learn 'hey, it did happen in Niles, it did happen in Hubbard township and Wheatland and what can I do if it happens again'", said Narramore.

"A lot of the people in the audience were people that hadn't been born yet, or were maybe one year old or something like that, so the event and what they heard from their parents or family or friends or whatever has inspired them to be more and more weather-conscious," added Forbes.

And despite changes in how tornadoes are ranked now, Dr. Forbes believes the one that chewed through the heart of The Valley would still take its place in history.

"Some of the locations may have been rated somewhat differently...but I still think it would've been an EF5 (on the new Enhanced Fujita Scale)."

An unparalleled display of the savage power of nature we hope we never see again.