F2 tornado, West Salem, 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

6:20 PM EST (23:20 UTC)

Path length

5.0 miles (8.0 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1,000

County

Wayne County

Touchdown point

40.970, -82.100

Lift-off point

40.980, -82.000

Record number

917

A tornado touched down about four miles south of West Salem just east of State Route 301 along Pleasant Home Road. The tornado then traveled northeast for approximately five miles before dissipating two and one half miles southwest of Burbank near the intersection of Britton and Franchester Roads. Extensive damage was done along the damage path which was mostly around 50 yards in width but up to several hundred feet wide along Palmer Road. A home on Pleasant Home Road was heavily damaged as were three other homes on Easton Road to the west of Wohlganuth Road. Two more homes were severely damaged on Wohlganuth Road. A home and six outbuildings were destroyed as the tornado crossed Palmer Road about a mile east of State Route 539 (Wohlganuth Road). A second home was leveled on Ruff Road just to the west of Stratton Road. Finally, a home was heavily damaged near where the tornado dissipated. Several other homes and buildings sustained minor damage. Many vehicles were also damaged. At least 20 power poles were snapped and several hundred trees downed along the damage path.

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

17 minutes of warning. NWS CLE issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:03 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 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.

NWS Cleveland, OH wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Nov 10, 1:50 PM EST, 4 hours 30 minutes earlier.

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH
150 PM EST SUN NOV 10 2002

WL SEND THE ZONES OUT IN 10 DUE TO THE WATCH.  CDFNT MOVG THRU
TNGHT...TEMPS STILL ON THE WARM SIDE FOR MON AS PER TDAS FWC.

.CLE...
OH...SVR TSTM WATCH TIL 7 PM NW OH.
PA...NONE.

OHZ003-006>014-017>023-027>033-036>038-047-089-PAZ001>003-101315-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CLEVELAND OH
612 AM EST SUN NOV 10 2002

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR MUCH OF NORTHERN OHIO
AND A PORTION OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA.

.DAY ONE...

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS MAY BE POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON.

SPC HAS PLACE NORTHERN OHIO AND NORTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA IN A SLIGHT
RISK FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS. SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL
DEVELOP AHEAD OF A COLD FRONT IN ILLINOIS LATER THIS AFTERNOON AND
THEN MOVE EAST ACROSS THE CWA.  A FEW OF THE STORMS COULD BECOME
SEVERE...WITH DAMAGING WINDS BEING THE MOST LIKELY FORM OF SEVERE
WEATHER.

.SPOTTER CALL TO ACTION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED TODAY OR TONIGHT.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

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.

Wooster (BJJ), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:22 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.