Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2005

F1 tornado, Medina, Ohio, August 20, 2005

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Medina County on August 20, 2005, touching down at 4:20 PM EDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $180,000 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 20, 2005
Touchdown
4:20 PM EDT (20:20 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$180,000
County
Medina County
Touchdown point
41.170, -81.870
Lift-off point
41.170, -81.870
Record number
353

What the Weather Service recorded

Twin F1 tornadoes touched down north of the city of Medina in Medina Township around 4:20 PM. The tornadoes touched down on Marks Road about a half a mile north of Fenn Road. The tornadoes tracked east on the ground for about one hundred yards. The damage path was about seventy-five feet wide. A pole barn used as a horse arena was leveled. Another barn nearby suffered serious damage to the roof, and the house on the property also received substantial damage. Several other homes in the area sustained minor to serious structural damage with a couple sheds destroyed by the tornadoes. Debris was scattered for several hundred yards around the path of the tornadoes. No injuries to humans or animals were reported from these tornadoes.

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

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS CLE issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:20 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:48 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:38 UTC20:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCLE
20:20 UTC20:48 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:42 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.

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 12:00Z

8.3 hours before the tornado, 171 km from the path. August 20, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 2005-08-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -181, lifted condensation level 922 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, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 2005-08-20The 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 27 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-181 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
922 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
51 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 00:00Z

3.7 hours after it, 171 km from the path. August 21, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 2005-08-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 402 joules per kilogram, CIN -79, lifted condensation level 825 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 2005-08-21The 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 104 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
402 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-79 J/kg
Surface CAPE
177 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
825 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
104 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
140 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 27 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:19 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGBarbertonSummit, OHNUMEROUS TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN. A TREE FELL ON A HOUSE.
18:46 UTCHAIL 0.75GreenSummit, OH
19:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG10 Nne AshlandAshland, OHFEW LARGE LIMBS DOWN.
19:35 UTCHAIL 0.7512 Ne AshlandAshland, OH
19:35 UTCHAIL 0.75GreenwichHuron, OH
19:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Nw LodiMedina, OHA TREE AND LARGE LIMB DOWN.
20:09 UTCTSTM WND GST 603 W LorainLorain, OH
20:16 UTCHAIL 0.88LorainLorain, OH
20:20 UTCTORNADO2 N MedinaMedina, OHTWIN F1 TORNADOES ON THE GROUND FOR 100 YARDS AND 60 TO 75 FEET WIDE DESTROYED A 60 FOOT BY 100 FOOT POLE BARN AND A STORAGE SHED.
20:36 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 S Sheffield LakeLorain, OHONE TREE AND SOME LARGE LIMBS DOWN. FIVE POWER LINES DOWN.
20:55 UTCTSTM WND DMGBereaCuyahoga, OHTHREE TREES DOWN.
21:00 UTCFLASH FLOODElyriaLorain, OHA FOOT AND A HALF OF WATER ON ROADS. A FEW CARS FLOATING NEAR MIDWAY MALL.
21:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGBainbridgeGeauga, OHONE TREE AND ONE LARGE LIMB DOWN.
22:00 UTCFLASH FLOODNorth OlmstedCuyahoga, OHWATER UP TO WINDOWS ON A FEW HOUSES.
22:30 UTCFLASH FLOOD2 Sw VermilionErie, OHA FOOT OF WATER ON ROAD ON 60 SOUTH OF MASON.
22:58 UTCFLASH FLOODNorth RidgevilleLorain, OHDRAINAGE DITCHES FLOODING WITH BASEMENT AND STREET FLOODING.
23:00 UTCFLASH FLOODFairview ParkCuyahoga, OHBASEMENT FLOODING WITH 4 TO 6 INCHES OF WATER. RIVER NEAR ROCKY RIVER STABLES IN FLOOD.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

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.