Pittsburgh, PA – This week marks 40 years since the devastating 1985 flood that swept across northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania — one of the region’s most destructive natural disasters of the 20th century.
According to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, the remnants of Hurricane Juan entered the Ohio River Valley on November 4–5, 1985, producing 5 to 8 inches of rainfall across much of the area. Northern West Virginia was among the hardest hit, with catastrophic flooding recorded along the Cheat and Monongahela Rivers.
Satellite data from October 28, 1985, showed Hurricane Juan making landfall along the Louisiana coast as a Category 1 storm, before looping northward through Alabama and Tennessee. Once its remnants reached the Appalachians, an unusually strong upper-level wind pattern trapped moisture over the region, fueling days of persistent rain.
By November 5, river gauges in several locations reached record or near-record crests. The Cheat River at Rowlesburg and the Monongahela River at Charleroi and Braddock reported major flood stages, overwhelming local infrastructure and causing widespread destruction.
The 1985 flood remains one of the most significant inland flooding events in modern Appalachian history — a reminder, meteorologists say, of how tropical remnants can combine with fall weather systems to create devastating outcomes hundreds of miles from the coast.
