Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2004

F0 tornado, Richland County, Ohio, May 21, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Richland County on May 21, 2004, touching down at 4:02 PM EDT. It killed nobody.

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
May 21, 2004
Touchdown
4:02 PM EDT (20:02 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
0 yards (0 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Richland County
Touchdown point
40.880, -82.420
Lift-off point
40.880, -82.420
Record number
166

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:46 UTC20:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCLE
20:07 UTC20:45 UTCTornado WarningCLE
20:55 UTC01:00 UTCFlash Flood 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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), 12:00Z

8.0 hours before the tornado, 199 km from the path. May 21, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2004-05-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2750 joules per kilogram, CIN -38, lifted condensation level 666 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 2004-05-21The 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 31 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2750 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-38 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1765 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
666 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
114 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
96 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.8
Supercell composite
4.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

4.0 hours after it, 199 km from the path. May 22, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2004-05-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2621 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 832 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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 2004-05-22The 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 68 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2621 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3058 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
832 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
3.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mansfield (MFD), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:52 UTC8068230° 5 kt1017.6
19:52 UTC77710° 0 kt1016.6-RA
20:03 UTC73.469.8330° 29 kt401019.6+RA BR SQ
20:06 UTC6864.4320° 40 kt521019.3+TSRA BR
20:11 UTC60.857.2330° 39 kt521017.9+TSRA FG
20:17 UTC5957.2340° 27 kt471018.3+TSRA FG
20:23 UTC60.859330° 14 kt1019.6+TSRA BR
20:30 UTC60.859320° 15 kt1019.3+TSRA BR
20:36 UTC60.860.8320° 15 kt1018.6+TSRA BR
20:52 UTC6160330° 14 kt1017.6-TSRA
21:52 UTC605870° 8 kt1018.3-TSRA

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

The radar

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:04 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 2004 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 21, 2004

23 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 212:28 PM CDTF0Grundy, IA3.050
May 212:38 PM CDTF1Grundy, IA3.5100$2,000
May 212:49 PM CDTF0Grundy, IA0.530
May 213:15 PM CDTF0Grundy, IA0.540
May 213:21 PM CDTF0Black Hawk, IA0.330
May 213:22 PM CDTF0Grundy, IA0.540
May 214:05 PM CDTF0Benton, IA0.150
May 214:07 PM CDTF0Benton, IA0.150
May 214:13 PM CDTF1Benton, IA1.7150$50,000
May 214:22 PM CDTF3Linn, IA3.0200$250,000
May 214:44 PM CDTF0Benton, IA0.050
May 215:06 PM CDTF1Jones, IA6.0100$40,000
May 215:12 PM CDTF1Clay, IA1.0200$230,000
May 216:00 PM CDTF1Pocahontas, IA5.0300$30,000
May 216:08 PM CDTF2Pocahontas, IA12.588015$2.5 million
May 214:16 PM PDTF0Spokane, WA0.270
May 217:30 PM CDTF0Wright, IA0.225
May 219:14 PM EDTF0Berkeley, WV3.01
May 218:20 PM CDTF1Pierce, NE1.5150
May 218:44 PM CDTF0Brown, NE0.220
May 219:20 PM CDTF1Wayne, NE0.5150
May 219:20 PM CDTF0Yankton, SD0.150
May 2110:13 PM CDTF0Garfield, NE0.220

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.