Paul Markowski, a tornado researcher and professor of meteorology at Penn State University, with a tornado behind him in rural Nebraska in May 2019. (Photo provided by Markowski)

By Deb Kiner | [email protected]

Paul Markowski was 10 years old and in the fifth grade living in Camp Hill in 1985.

His interest at the time was primarily baseball but his career trajectory was set in motion that spring by a historic and catastrophic event that happened in another part of Pennsylvania.

On the evening of May 31, 1985, Markowski was watching TV.

“ … a crawl ran across the bottom of the screen that listed several counties in the viewing area that were in a tornado watch (these would have been counties in the northern part of the Harrisburg viewing area). This was the first time I’d ever heard/seen the term ‘tornado watch,’ and I distinctly recall asking my parents what it meant ...

Read the full story here: ‘It’s very, very bad’: The day 21 tornadoes hit Pa. 35 years ago and killed 89 people