Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2002

F0 tornado, Wilmington, Ohio, May 9, 2002

This F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Clinton County on May 9, 2002, touching down at 6:09 PM EDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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 9, 2002
Touchdown
6:09 PM EDT (22:09 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Clinton County
Touchdown point
39.520, -83.830
Lift-off point
39.520, -83.830
Record number
123

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado touched down just west of the Interstate 71/US Route 68 interchange, skipping across the interstate for a few minutes before lifting back into the clouds. Minor structural damage occurred at the exit to the Bush RV Center and at the Ramada Plaza Hotel. Several cars parked in the Ramada lot had windows blown out.

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.

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 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.

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z

10.2 hours before the tornado, 10 km from the path. May 9, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2002-05-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 648 joules per kilogram, CIN -46, lifted condensation level 950 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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2002-05-09The 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 332 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
648 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-46 J/kg
Surface CAPE
293 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
950 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
332 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
334 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.4
Supercell composite
6.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

1.8 hours after it, 10 km from the path. May 10, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2002-05-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 1154 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2002-05-10The 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 48 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 68 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
39 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1154 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
68 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
48 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
78 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

The surface observations

Wilmington (ILN), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:54 UTC6866260° 21 kt261012.9
21:54 UTC67250° 14 kt211013.9
22:54 UTC67260° 16 kt1014.6
23:54 UTC66280° 13 kt1015.6

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

The radar

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 11 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:09 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 9, 2002

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 92:11 AM CDTF1Marion, IL0.51002
May 94:00 PM MDTF0Larimer, CO0.150

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.