Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 1973

F2 tornado, Franklin and Delaware counties, Ohio, May 8, 1973

This F2 tornado ran 17.3 miles across Franklin and Delaware counties on May 8, 1973, touching down at 3:10 PM EDT and reaching 67 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F2
Date
May 8, 1973
Touchdown
3:10 PM EDT (19:10 UTC)
Path length
17.3 miles (27.8 km)
Path width
67 yards (61 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Franklin and Delaware counties
Touchdown point
40.100, -83.120
Lift-off point
40.250, -82.850
Record number
330

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Dayton/James M C, OH (KDAY), 12:00Z

7.2 hours before the tornado, 108 km from the path. May 8, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dayton/James M C, OH at 12:00Z on 1973-05-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 113 joules per kilogram, CIN -192, lifted condensation level 520 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Dayton/James M C, OH at 12:00Z on 1973-05-08The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 83 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
113 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-192 J/kg
Surface CAPE
104 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
520 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
181 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dayton/James M C, OH (KDAY), 00:00Z

4.8 hours after it, 108 km from the path. May 9, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dayton/James M C, OH at 00:00Z on 1973-05-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 29 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 1256 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Dayton/James M C, OH at 00:00Z on 1973-05-09The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 54 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
29 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
103 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1256 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
54 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1973 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 8, 1973

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 84:05 AM CDTF2Winston, AL2.0500$50,000 to $500,000
May 85:10 AM CDTF2Marshall, AL29.1900212$500,000 to $5 million
May 86:00 AM CDTF1Wayne, MS0.5300$50,000 to $500,000
May 87:57 AM CDTF1Monroe, AL0.1102$50,000 to $500,000
May 86:00 PM EDTF0Cuyahoga, OH0.327$500 to $5,000
May 89:00 PM CDTF1Hancock, IL0.110

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.