Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2003

F0 tornado, Kipton to Amherst, Ohio, August 3, 2003

From Kipton to Amherst, this F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Lorain County on August 3, 2003, touching down at 3:00 PM EDT and reaching 50 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 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
August 3, 2003
Touchdown
3:00 PM EDT (19:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Lorain County
Touchdown point
41.400, -82.220
Lift-off point
41.400, -82.220
Record number
212

What the Weather Service recorded

A small tornado touched down four miles northeast of Kipton in Henrietta Township near the intersection of Garfield and Baumhart Roads. The tornado was on the ground for approximately 200 yards and had a damage path up to 50 yards in width. One home sustained some minor damage. Several trees and a power pole were downed. Some crop damage also occurred in a nearby field.

The parent thunderstorm that spawned the tornado in Henrietta Township produced a second tornado north of Amherst. This touchdown occurred near State Route 2 between State Route 58 and Terra Lane. The tornado was on the ground for around 300 yards and had a damage path up to 50 yards in width. No structural damage occurred, but several trees were toppled along the damage path.

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

The warnings

32 minutes of warning. NWS CLE issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:28 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:28 UTC19:00 UTCTornado WarningCLE

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:44 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.

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 12:00Z

7.0 hours before the tornado, 178 km from the path. August 3, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2003-08-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 162 joules per kilogram, CIN -32, lifted condensation level 889 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, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2003-08-03The 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 17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
162 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-32 J/kg
Surface CAPE
143 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
889 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z

5.0 hours after it, 178 km from the path. August 4, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2003-08-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2061 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 469 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, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2003-08-04The 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 -4 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 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
2061 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1124 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
469 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-8 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lorain/Elyria (LPR), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:06 UTC71.671.6160° 10 kt1014.6-RA BR
17:30 UTC71.669.8160° 7 kt1014.2-RA BR
17:53 UTC7171150° 6 kt1014.6-RA BR
18:53 UTC7571150° 10 kt1013.9
19:08 UTC75.271.6170° 9 kt1013.5
19:29 UTC75.269.8160° 9 kt1013.2
20:53 UTC7470170° 11 kt1012.9-RA

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

The radar

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 30 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:58 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 3, 2003

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 32:18 PM EDTF0Palm Beach, FL0.110
August 32:45 PM EDTF0Lorain, OH0.150$10,000
August 32:59 PM CDTF1Calumet, WI0.475

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.