5 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, as filed by the National Weather Service.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Cleveland, OH wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 16, 1:15 PM EST, 1 hour 30 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH 215 PM EDT SAT AUG 16 2003 TNGT...PCPN WITH CDFNT. MOST OF THE SIG PCPN MAY FORM JUST S OF THE LAKESHORE...WL GO LOWER POPS E OF TOL AND W OF ERI. BTR DYNAMICS NW PA WL KP HI POPS ALG THE LAKESHORE. PCPN SHOULD BE JUST AHD OF CDFNT. FNT SHOULD BE OUT OF CWA BY 02Z. GUID MINS LOOK OK WRMR ALG THE LAKESHORE BECAUSE OF NLY FLOW. FOR SUNDAY MODELS TRYING TO HINT AT SOME LO LVLS MSTR. FLOW NOT TOO CYCLONIC WL GO WITH PTLY CLDY. BASED ON NEW MRF WL GO WITH PCPN THU NIGHT INTO FRI...OTRW DRY. THIS SEEMS REASONABLE BASED ON LATEST AVN RUN. .CLE... OH...NONE. PA...NONE.
OHZ003-006>014-017>023-027>033-036>038-047-089-PAZ001>003-161200- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH 554 AM EDT SAT AUG 16 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR MUCH OF NORTHERN OHIO AND A PORTION OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. .DAY ONE...TODAY THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TODAY. THE ATMOSPHERE IS EXPECTED TO BECOME MODERATELY UNSTABLE THIS AFTERNOON AHEAD OF A COLD FRONT. THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO BECOME SEVERE PRODUCING DAMAGING STRAIGHT LINE WINDS...ESPECIALLY THIS AFTERNOON INTO THE EVENING HOURS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED TODAY OR TONIGHT. LOMBARDY
The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 19:43 UTC.
5 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Thunderstorm winds downed a few large tree limbs.
Penny size hail was observed.
Penny size hail was observed.
Quarter size hail was observed.
Thunderstorm winds downed a few trees and large limbs.
Penny size hail was observed on the west side of Ashtabula.
Thunderstorm winds toppled two large trees three miles northwest of Millersburg.
Penny to quarter size hail was observed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Ohio in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Ohio, August 2003
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5333337, 5333732, 5333430, 5333338, 5333434, 5333431, 5333432, 5333433.