Photo of the tornado in its final phase near Storey Road and State Route 46, Colebrook Township, Ashtabula County.

May 31, 1985.

050-002-234

Still Image

Local History & Genealogy Center

The accompanying photo is of the May 31st, 1985 tornado that began in Mesopotamia and ended in Colebrook. This picture was taken by our neighbor and given to our family. It is taken on Storey Road, near SR 46 looking west. The tornado is in its final stage and is passing near the woods on/near our property. I wasn’t home at the time, but my parents and sisters went outside to collect hailstones that fit in the palm of your hand, larger than golf balls. They were strange looking as they were rounded on the bottom and had “nipples” all over the top. While they were collecting, dad heard what he described as the sound of toothpicks breaking in the distance and he yelled at everyone to get in the basement NOW! My sister said she looked out the basement window and saw the tornado as it was passing just a little west of our property. When I got home that Sunday, I walked out to the woods and saw some small trees down and a few others twisted, but I also found a checkbook from a house that was hit about five miles away. My story from that day is that I wasn’t home because I was away on church council and we had a retreat planned at Camp Frederick in Columbiana County that weekend. I remember that it was very hot and sunny that day. We were waiting in the parking lot of the church in Cortland for others to arrive and were looking at the sky to the north. Amid the blue sky were towering, majestic, puffy white cumulonimbus clouds. Some of the most beautiful looking I’ve ever seen. A pilot was with us that day and I remember him saying ”I am glad I’m not flying today!” Little did we know that this was probably the time the tornado was going through northern Trumbull County. As we were travelling down route 11 we noticed the skies darkening in the west. They just looked like normal storm clouds. What I will never forget as it is etched in my mind, when we were on route 11 heading west past Girard, I looked north. It was still sunny where we were, but to the north was a wall from sky to ground of the deepest, darkest blue I have ever seen in the sky. It is hard to describe its purity in color. That must have been the massive tornado as it was ravaging Niles. We had no clue, but when we made the return trip home and saw where it had crossed route 11 and knew we had only minutes earlier been driving that path, we were very grateful were hadn’t left the church a few minutes later. We also learned we also missed the tornado that went through Columbiana County later that day. Gift of Alan Smearsoll.

Warren-Trumbull County Public Library.