F1 tornado, Ashland, Ohio, August 6, 2000

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F1

Date

August 6, 2000

Touchdown

10:45 PM EDT (02:45 UTC)

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

70 yards (64 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

Property damage

$2.0 million

County

Ashland County

Touchdown point

40.870, -82.300

Lift-off point

40.870, -82.300

Record number

472

A tornado touched down on the west side of Ashland near Lindale Avenue then moved east along West Main Street causing significant damage and four minor injuries. The damage path was 50 to 100 yards wide, intermittent and nearly three miles in length. The most severe damage occurred a few blocks west of downtown. Major structural damage occurred to several homes in the area including one that had an entire side blown apart. Damage to the downtown business district was much less severe with most of the damage being in the form of broken windows and torn off siding. However, three buildings lost large sections of roof and a fourth had a brick wall collapse. The roof of one of the buildings was found six blocks east of downtown. East of the business district, the damage path was intermittent with only a dozen or so homes sustaining minor damage. In total, 112 homes and 20 businesses were damaged. Of those totals, 23 homes and four businesses suffered major damage. Several cars were destroyed and hundreds of trees were toppled. Six power poles were also snapped near ground level.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:07 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Mansfield (MFD), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:46 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

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.

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