Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2000

F0 tornado, Bloomingdale, Ohio, May 23, 2000

This F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Jefferson County on May 23, 2000, touching down at 5:06 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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
May 23, 2000
Touchdown
5:06 PM EDT (21:06 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Jefferson County
Touchdown point
40.330, -80.850
Lift-off point
40.330, -80.820
Record number
784

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak F0 tornado with maximum winds estimated at around 70 MPH touched down in a rural area 2 miles west of Bloomingdale. As the tornado moved east it passed over US 22, downing or shearing several trees along the shoulder of the road. As the tornado moved towards Bloomingdale it downed several more trees, but weakened as it moved into the town. Damage in the town was limited to several shingles blown from roofs and a few downed trees. No injuries or fatalities were reported.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:47 UTC21:50 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ
21:08 UTC21:50 UTCTornado WarningPBZ
22:44 UTC23:20 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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 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

9.1 hours before the tornado, 63 km from the path. May 23, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 2000-05-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -71120, lifted condensation level 828 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2000-05-23The 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 172 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-71120 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
828 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
172 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
187 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 00:00Z

2.9 hours after it, 63 km from the path. May 24, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 2000-05-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 515 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 656 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2000-05-24The 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 82 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
515 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
990 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
656 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
121 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Wheeling/Ohio Co. (HLG), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:53 UTC6762200° 9 kt1002
20:53 UTC6862210° 10 kt1001
21:16 UTC6862.6210° 10 kt141000.7
21:36 UTC6862.6200° 12 kt1000.7
21:53 UTC6963200° 9 kt1000.7
22:27 UTC6862.6200° 8 kt1000.3-RA
22:42 UTC66.262.6200° 9 kt1000.3
22:53 UTC6763190° 7 kt1000

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of May 23, 2000

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 232:00 PM CDTF3Grayson, KY6.010016$50 million
May 232:25 PM CDTF0Hart, KY0.120
May 234:40 PM EDTF2Harrison, OH3.0200$100,000
May 235:05 PM EDTF1Knox, TN0.5401
May 235:20 PM EDTF0Taylor, KY0.120$10,000
May 236:00 PM EDTF0Fairfield, OH0.5130$50,000
May 236:10 PM EDTF1Perry, OH2.0150$180,000
May 236:30 PM EDTF2Marion, OH3.0200$200,000
May 236:15 PM CDTF0Calloway, KY0.120
May 236:30 PM CDTF1Calloway, KY1.5100$50,000
May 237:43 PM EDTF1Tyler, WV1.070$90,000
May 237:04 PM CDTF0Calloway, KY0.220$4,000
May 238:15 PM EDTF1Washington, OH1.0100$150,000
May 237:25 PM CDTF1Stewart, TN0.220
May 237:48 PM CDTF0Bollinger, MO0.320
May 239:04 PM CDTF0Scott, MO0.230

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.