Hail in Ohio, June 26, 1998

Severe thunderstorms bringing damaging winds and torrential rains affected much of east-central Ohio, western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia during the period of June 26-30. These storms caused eight deaths and several injuries, along with millions of dollars of damage across the region. High pressure anchored over the Tennessee Valley contributed to the northward transport of a tropical airmass into eastern Ohio by the afternoon of June 26th. Explosive thunderstorm development on the afternoon of June 26th over northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania formed a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) by late afternoon. As this MCS propagated slowly to the southeast during the evening, it left behind a northwest-to-southeast oriented outflow boundary. This boundary remained nearly stationary for over 36 hours and served to focus waves of thunderstorms from the evening of June 26th through the early morning hours of June 28th across eastern Ohio. As a result, flash flooding from these continuous waves of thunderstorms was widespread across east central Ohio. Travel across this area was nearly impossible, as many roads were under water. On June 29th and 30th, severe thunderstorms moving rapidly through the area from the northwest brought damaging straight-line winds of up to 85 MPH across the region. The accompanying heavy rainfall with these storms only worsened the flooding across east-central Ohio.Five counties in southeastern Ohio experienced widespread flooding from June 26-30: Tuscarawas, Muskingum, Guernsey, Noble and Monroe. These counties, along with 16 other Ohio counties, have been included in a Presidential Disaster Declaration. WSR-88D Radar estimated between 7-9 inches storm total rainfall amounts during this period. The only flooding at a river forecast point occurred on the Wills Creek at Cambridge, Ohio in Guernsey County. The river crested at 26.92 feet, 12 feet above flood stage and almost 2.5 feet above the record flood stage of 24.51 feet previously set in 1980. In addition to the torrential rains, many of these thunderstorms produced damaging winds as they passed over the region, downing numerous trees and depositing hail up to 1.75 inches in diameter. Four tornadoes were also confirmed during this period. Muskingum and Noble Counties in Ohio were the hardest hit. Noble County had six deaths which all occurred on June 28th. Four people drowned around 2AM in the Duck Creek in the town of Caldwell. A 90-year-old male and an 89-year-old female were killed when part of their home was washed away. A 71-year-old male and a 31-year-old male were killed as their cars flooded. Around the same time in Belle Valley, a 37-year-old male was killed when he attempted to swim in flood waters of the West Fork of the Duck Creek after being stranded on the roof of a building. There was one tornado-related death in Noble County as a 54-year-old woman was killed in the town of Summerfield at 8:05 PM on June 27th when a F2 tornado demolished her mobile home. In addition, there were two deaths in Belmont County on June 28th. A 41-year-old female was killed when she tried to drive through a flooded portion of Steep Run Creek near Barton at around 8:30 PM, and a 16-year-old boy was struck and killed by lightning. There were numerous injuries, including the husband of the woman who was killed by the tornado in Summerfield. Flood waters forced an estimated 9000 people from their homes across east central Ohio, with 2000 evacuations alone in the Guernsey County city of Cambridge due to this flooding. Preliminary damage assessments by the USDA estimate that Guernsey and Muskingum Counties each had more than $14 million in crop loss alone. Property damage from the flood waters will also total in the millions.