Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2003

F1 tornado, Auglaize County, Ohio, August 1, 2003

This F1 tornado ran 6.0 miles across Auglaize County on August 1, 2003, touching down at 11:10 PM EDT and reaching 100 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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
August 1, 2003
Touchdown
11:10 PM EDT (03:10 UTC)
Path length
6.0 miles (9.7 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Auglaize County
Touchdown point
40.520, -84.400
Lift-off point
40.570, -84.300
Record number
616

The warnings

8 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:02 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
03:02 UTC03:45 UTCTornado WarningILN
03:44 UTC04:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILN

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:06 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.

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

3.2 hours before the tornado, 133 km from the path. August 2, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2003-08-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 572 joules per kilogram, CIN -48, lifted condensation level 1580 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 00:00Z on 2003-08-02The 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 42 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
572 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-48 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2046 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1580 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
42 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

8.8 hours after it, 133 km from the path. August 2, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2003-08-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 107 joules per kilogram, CIN -102, lifted condensation level 999 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 2003-08-02The 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 114 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 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
107 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-102 J/kg
Surface CAPE
251 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
999 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
114 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
117 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lima (AOH), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:23 UTC66.264.470° 7 kt1015.2
01:53 UTC6764 3 kt1015.6VCTS
02:08 UTC66.264.4340° 6 kt1015.9-RA
02:27 UTC66.264.40° 0 kt1015.2-RA BR
02:53 UTC6665350° 5 kt1014.9VCTS -RA BR
03:03 UTC66.264.420° 6 kt1014.6VCTS -RA BR
03:53 UTC666510° 6 kt1014.9-TSRA BR
04:08 UTC66.264.4330° 7 kt1015.2TSRA BR
04:14 UTC66.264.4290° 10 kt151015.9TSRA BR
04:26 UTC64.464.4340° 13 kt1016.3+TSRA BR
04:34 UTC64.464.4330° 12 kt1016.3+TSRA BR
04:38 UTC64.464.4350° 13 kt1015.9+TSRA BR
04:53 UTC6464350° 4 kt1017.3+TSRA BR

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

The radar

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 133 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:10 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 2003 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 1, 2003

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 14:40 PM EDTF0Hillsdale, MI0.110
August 16:50 PM ESTF1Delaware, IN1.250$20,000
August 16:55 PM ESTF0Randolph, IN1.050

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.