Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 1981

F0 tornado, Guernsey County, Ohio, June 13, 1981

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Guernsey County on June 13, 1981, touching down at 5:36 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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 mphthis tornado

    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 mph

    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
F0
Date
June 13, 1981
Touchdown
5:36 PM EDT (21:36 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Guernsey County
Touchdown point
40.030, -81.570
Record number
418

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.

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 12:00Z

9.6 hours before the tornado, 132 km from the path. June 13, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 1981-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 146 joules per kilogram, CIN -17, lifted condensation level 564 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, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 1981-06-13The 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 14 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
146 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Surface CAPE
346 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
564 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
14 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 00:00Z

2.4 hours after it, 132 km from the path. June 14, 1981.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 1981-06-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 262 joules per kilogram, CIN -42, lifted condensation level 722 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, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 1981-06-14The 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 144 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
262 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-42 J/kg
Surface CAPE
107 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
722 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
241 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
2.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1981 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 13, 1981

23 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 137:30 AM CDTF1Kandiyohi, MN0.550under $50
June 131:55 PM EDTF1Montgomery, OH1.0100$5,000 to $50,000
June 133:23 PM EDTF3Morrow, OH3.8350456$5 million to $50 million
June 133:30 PM EDTF0Franklin, OH0.5100$500 to $5,000
June 134:30 PM EDTF2Muskingum, OH2.3200$500,000 to $5 million
June 134:00 PM CDTF1Travis, TX0.233$5,000 to $50,000
June 135:40 PM EDTF2Perry, OH2.02502$50,000 to $500,000
June 135:45 PM EDTF1Muskingum, OH4.9300$50,000 to $500,000
June 136:15 PM EDTF1Hillsborough, FL0.530$5,000 to $50,000
June 135:25 PM CDTF1Madison, NE8.850$50,000 to $500,000
June 136:10 PM CDTF0Boone, NE0.210$50 to $500
June 136:30 PM CDTF2Isanti, MN2.0100$50,000 to $500,000
June 138:30 PM EDTF1Polk, FL0.530$5,000 to $50,000
June 137:30 PM MDTF1Logan, CO1.040
June 139:00 PM ESTF0Montgomery, IN0.110
June 139:25 PM CDTF1Cottonwood, MN0.550$50 to $500
June 139:30 PM CDTF2Sioux, IA0.110$500 to $5,000
June 139:40 PM CDTF1Oneida, WI0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 139:40 PM CDTF1Oneida, WI0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 139:45 PM CDTF1Vilas, WI0.150$5,000 to $50,000
June 1310:00 PM CDTF2Oneida, WI0.150$50,000 to $500,000
June 139:45 PM MDTF1Morgan, CO0.540$5,000 to $50,000
June 1311:00 PM CDTF1Lincoln, NE14.430$5,000 to $50,000

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.