Isolated thunderstorms developed in an unstable air mass across central Ohio during the late afternoon hours.
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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 episode as NWS ILN wrote it up.
Isolated thunderstorms developed in an unstable air mass across central Ohio during the late afternoon hours.
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 Wilmington, OH wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 18, 2:16 PM EST, 4 hours 35 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION National Weather Service Wilmington OH 316 PM EDT Sat May 18 2019 .SYNOPSIS... A mid level ridge will move east tonight. A low pressure system will move northeast across the western Great Lakes on Sunday. A trailing cold front from this low will move into our region Sunday night. Windy conditions are expected on Sunday, along with an increasing chance for showers and thunderstorms. Showers and thunderstorms will wane Sunday night as the front moves east. Cooler and drier conditions will move into the region for Monday and Tuesday as high pressure influences the region. && .NEAR TERM /UNTIL 6 AM SUNDAY MORNING/... A mid level ridge axis will move east tonight. An instability/diurnally driven shower or storm may linger into this evening, with dry and mainly clear skies expected overnight. Sustained winds will decouple during the evening, then increase a tad toward morning. Lows will generally fall into the mid 60s. && .SHORT TERM /6 AM SUNDAY MORNING THROUGH SUNDAY NIGHT/... On Sunday, as the mid level ridge continues to move east, a mid level trough along with an embedded short wave will move northeast from the middle Mississippi River Valley to the western Great Lakes. A fairly decent surface low will also move northeast toward the western Great Lakes, with an attendent cold front pushing east toward our region. This system has a fairly strong wind field. As such, a strong low level jet, along with a decent surface pressure gradient and diurnal mixing, will result in windy conditions. Based on ECMWF ensembles and GFS/RAP Bufkit soundings, there could be a period of wind gusts around 40 knots, especially along and west of I-71. The problem will be pinpointing the areal extent and duration. High resolution models indicate that as the strong low level jet will move into our region. The initially may be a cluster/band of showers and embedded thunderstorms moving into our western zones between late morning and early afternoon. This may limit the duration of 40 knot gust potential far west (outside of thunderstorms) due to moistening and lowering of the mixing height. Farther east (more around the I-71 corridor), a little more heating and later onset of pcpn potential may allow for a longer period of 40 knot gust potential. In summary, a Wind Advisory may be needed on Sunday, but areal extent and duration is still a little bit in question. Will continue to highlight gusty winds in the HWO. Otherwise, focus is also on severe thunderstorm potential. It appears that much of the region will struggle to reach low end moderate instability. In addition, it is uncertain how much thunderstorm activity will be embedded with the first push of pcpn associated with a moisture plume/convergent low level jet. That being said, there is a decent wind field, so it wouldn't take much to get a 50 knot gust. The first push of pcpn is forecast to move east late in the day, perhaps shrinking in areal coverage. By that time, a cold front will be moving into our western CWFA by Sunday evening. If the front and associated showers/embedded storms arrive soon enough before dark, there could be another window for severe thunderstorm wind gusts. Will mention this in the HWO. Highs on Sunday will be cloud/pcpn dependent, ranging from the upper 70s west to the mid/upper 80s east. For Sunday night, a mid level trough will move northeast across the Great Lakes. This will push the cold front east through our region. A weakening trend in the overall dynamics and instability will allow scattered convection to wane during the evening and overnight period as the front moves east. Winds will decrease as well with the onset of night. Lows will range from the mid 50s northwest to the mid 60s south. && .LONG TERM /MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY/... Main story through this period will be building heat and humidity and an overall pattern from previous days. High confidence in dry days with seasonable temperatures both Monday and Tuesday behind the cold front which moves through Sunday night. May be some morning fog especially in the valleys on one or both of these mornings, but not enough confidence to put into the forecast yet. By 12Z on Wednesday, anomalous/deep western trough will evolve into an extremely large closed cyclone centered over the central Rockies. Downstream of this feature will be a building subtropical ridge over the southeast CONUS, with increasing 500mb heights at the center of this feature to increase to nearly 595dm by Thursday and Friday over GA/AL. Heights will rise in earnest over the Ohio Valley on these days - with normalized anomalies approaching 3 sigma by the end of the work week. Not surprisingly, 850mb temp anomaly center persistently increases in magnitude/space from the southeast into the Ohio Valley on Thursday and Friday, in the wake of a developing warm front that lifts across the Ohio Valley on Wednesday. Will see multiple days /Thursday...Friday...Saturday/ where high temps will be widespread in the middle and upper 80s while areas near/south of the Ohio River may flirt with 90 in the warm spots. Add in surface dewpoints well into the 60s, and it will be a very summerlike approach to the holiday weekend. Precipitation chances are ill-defined with such meager forcing, though being on the southern fringe of the height gradient on the north side of large ridge, means chances of storms will need to be watched for amidst a /largely/ dry pattern - as currently it doesn't seem any appreciable shortwaves or strong frontal zones will work through the area. Instabilities will be above average each day Wed- Sat, even at night given steeper lapse rate plume in place per GFS soundings. Think the best chance of storms is on Wednesday /warm frontal forcing/ and perhaps next Saturday as some subtle suppression of the ridge is possible. That being said, the degree of instability and position near a little stronger flow across the upper Great Lakes means a small chance each day of storms especially across the northern half of the forecast area. Reality is - most areas will remain dry for many of these days - something sorely needed in a very saturated and waterlogged Ohio Valley. && .AVIATION /19Z SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY/... A mid level ridge will continue to build northward this afternoon, allowing a warm front to push north into the Great Lakes. A warm, and somewhat humid airmass may result in a pop up shower to thunderstorm this afternoon into this evening. Chances are low enough to not include in the terminals at this time. South to southwest winds of 10 to 15 knots will gust between 15 and 25 knots. For this evening and overnight, sustained winds will decouple during the evening, then increase a tad toward morning. Mid level ridge axis will shift east. Skies will become mostly clear. A low level jet to our west will pivot into the region toward 12Z. Have non convective LLWS developing by then. On Sunday, as the mid level ridge continues to move east, a mid level trough along with an embedded disturbance will move northeast from the middle Mississippi River Valley to the western Great Lakes. A fairly decent surface low will also move northeast toward the western Great Lakes, with an attendent cold front pushing east toward our region. This system has a fairly strong wind field. As such, a strong low level jet, along with a decent surface pressure gradient and diurnal mixing, will result in windy conditions at the terminals. As we mix, the LLWS threat will end, but gusty winds will commence. We could see wind gusts from the south in the 35 to 40 knot range. Models suggest that the low level jet will be associated with a moisture plume and that the low level jet will be convergent. This will likely spread showers and embedded thunderstorms into our western forecast area between 15Z and 18Z. Some MVFR conditions will be possible with thunderstorms. OUTLOOK...Thunderstorms possible Sunday evening. Thunderstorms possible Wednesday and Thursday. && .ILN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... OH...None. KY...None. IN...None. && SYNOPSIS...Hickman NEAR TERM...Hickman SHORT TERM...Hickman LONG TERM...Binau AVIATION...Hickman
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Wilmington OH 327 PM EDT Sat May 18 2019 INZ050-058-059-066-073>075-080-KYZ089>098-OHZ026-034-035-042>046- 051>056-060>065-070>073-077>080-191100- Wayne-Fayette IN-Union IN-Franklin IN-Ripley-Dearborn-Ohio- Switzerland-Carroll-Gallatin-Boone-Kenton-Campbell-Owen-Grant- Pendleton-Bracken-Robertson-Hardin-Mercer-Auglaize-Darke-Shelby- Logan-Union OH-Delaware-Miami-Champaign-Clark-Madison-Franklin OH- Licking-Preble-Montgomery-Greene-Fayette OH-Pickaway-Fairfield- Butler-Warren-Clinton-Ross-Hamilton-Clermont-Brown-Highland- 327 PM EDT Sat May 18 2019 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for East Central Indiana, Southeast Indiana, Northern Kentucky, Central Ohio, South Central Ohio, Southwest Ohio and West Central Ohio. .DAY ONE...This Afternoon and Tonight. There is a low probability for widespread hazardous weather. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Sunday through Friday. Wind gusts of 40 to 50 mph will be possible Sunday afternoon. Thunderstorms are expected to develop along or just ahead of an eastward-moving cold front. These storms may contain damaging wind gusts on Sunday. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation may be required on Sunday. KYZ099-100-OHZ074-081-082-088-191100- Mason-Lewis-Hocking-Adams-Pike-Scioto- 327 PM EDT Sat May 18 2019 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for Northeast Kentucky, Northern Kentucky, Central Ohio and South Central Ohio. .DAY ONE...This Afternoon and Tonight. There is a low probability for widespread hazardous weather. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Sunday through Friday. Winds may gust between 35 and 40 mph Sunday afternoon. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation is not expected at this time.
The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:50 UTC.
2 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Several trees and power poles were downed in the Groveport area.
A tree was downed onto Cambria Mill Road.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Ohio in 2019Every state in 2019This day in weather historyWarnings in Ohio, May 2019
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: 816237, 816238.