F2 tornado, Macedonia to Solon, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   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

F2

Date

November 10, 2002

Touchdown

7:00 PM EST (00:00 UTC)

Path length

10.1 miles (16.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$17 million

Counties

Summit and Cuyahoga counties

Touchdown point

41.320, -81.500

Lift-off point

41.380, -81.430

Record number

926

A small F0/F1 tornado touched down in Macedonia near the intersection of Valley View Drive (SR 631) and Aurora Road and moved northeast. The tornado gradually strengthened and reached F2 intensity as it crossed State Route 14 and moved into Twinsburg. After a track of just over three miles the tornado weakened to F1 intensity and crossed into Cuyahoga County south of Glenwillow. Extensive damage was done in Macedonia and Twinsburg. In Macedonia, 60 homes were damaged including two that were destroyed and 15 others were damaged enough to be declared uninhabitable. The most severe damage in the county occurred in the Glenwood Preserve neighborhood on the north side of Twinsburg. Extensive damage was done on Andover Drive and Deeplake Circle where several homes were leveled and a total of 45 homes damaged. Damage estimates in Twinsburg alone were well over $5 million. The damage path was continuous and about 100 yards in width. Dozens of cars were damaged or destroyed and hundreds of trees and power poles downed in Summit County.

An F1 tornado crossed into Cuyahoga County from Summit County to the south of Glenwillow. The tornado traveled northeast for about four miles and dissipated to the east of Solon. The tornado caused some home damage in Glenwillow and tore the roof off of a business. After moving across a few open fields the tornado crossed into Solon along Pettibone Road. Several homes were damaged on Selworthy and Hollycock Lanes in the Liberty Hill subdivision just north of Pettibone. As the tornado continued northeast it damaged several more homes in the Hunt Club subdivision near the intersection of SOM Center and Arthur Roads. Next hit was the Solon Middle School on SOM Center Road just north of Arthur Road. The school sustained over $2 million in roof and structural damages. As the tornado continued northeast it caused damage in the Ayleshire subdivision along Aurora Road. More home damage occured along Liberty Street near the railroad tracks and on Windy Hill Lane. The tornado finally dissipated on the eastern edge of Solon near Bainbridge Road after damaging around 100 homes in the county. Most of the home damage was minor, but dozens of cars were damaged or destroyed and hundreds of trees and power poles downed. The damage path was generally 50 to 100 yards in width.

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 Slight Risk. 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), 34 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:08 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.