F1 tornado, Massillon, Ohio, November 10, 2002

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

November 10, 2002

Touchdown

6:27 PM EST (23:27 UTC)

Path length

3.3 miles (5.3 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$850,000

County

Stark County

Touchdown point

40.780, -81.550

Lift-off point

40.780, -81.550

Record number

925

A tornado touched down in Massillon between Tremont Avenue SW and Lincoln Way West just west of State Route 21. From the initial touchdown site, the tornado traveled northeast along a track roughly parallel to Lincoln Way and lifted to the west of State Route 241 after being on the ground for about three quarters of a mile. The tornado touched down a second time in Perry Township north of Valerie Street NW. The tornado tracked northeast across Jackson Street and dissipated near the intersection of Perry Street and Harris Avenue. This segment was also roughly three quarters of a mile in length and around 25 yards in width. A home was damaged on Tremont Avenue and several businesses sustained window and roof damage as the tornado moved through downtown Massillon. A semi truck and several large signs were also blown over in this area. Further northeast in Perry Township, four homes lost entire roofs in the area between Nottingham and List Streets. Many cars, including one with a board driven through it's door, were damaged or destroyed by trees and flying debris in this same area. A total of 23 properties sustained either roof and siding damage or downed trees on List Street alone.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS CLE issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:22 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:23 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.

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:27 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 2002 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

63 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 64 of them

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.