Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2006

F0 tornado, Knox County, Ohio, August 3, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Knox County on August 3, 2006, touching down at 4:25 PM EDT and reaching 17 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $330,000 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, 2006
Touchdown
4:25 PM EDT (20:25 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
17 yards (16 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$330,000
County
Knox County
Touchdown point
40.400, -82.480
Lift-off point
40.400, -82.480
Record number
784

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 16:55 UTC and running to 23:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
14:00 UTC23:45 UTCFlash Flood WatchCLE
16:55 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchCLE
20:30 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 20:01 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

8.4 hours before the tornado, 156 km from the path. August 3, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2006-08-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 364 joules per kilogram, CIN -113, lifted condensation level 1317 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 2006-08-03The 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 100 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
364 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-113 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1367 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1317 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
100 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Newark (VTA), 42 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:54 UTC8274280° 6 kt171011.5VCTS -RA
19:06 UTC80.673.4260° 6 kt1011.5-RA
19:54 UTC8875300° 9 kt1012.2VCTS
20:01 UTC80.671.6240° 34 kt561013.9TSRA SQ
20:15 UTC80.669.8 6 kt1011.5TS
20:54 UTC7767330° 13 kt241012.2
21:21 UTC75.268280° 8 kt151012.2VCTS
21:36 UTC75.269.8 3 kt1012.2
21:54 UTC75690° 0 kt1011.5

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

The radar

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 124 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:25 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
19:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGMarionMarion, OHTREE DOWN.
19:55 UTCTSTM WND DMGCoshoctonCoshocton, OHNUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN IN TOWN.
20:07 UTCTSTM WND GST 64NewarkLicking, OHVTA ASOS
20:09 UTCTSTM WND GST 705 N ColumbusFranklin, OHESTIMATED BY SPOTTER NEAR FRANKLIN DELAWARE COUNTY LINE
20:25 UTCTORNADOMount VernonKnox, OH*** 1 INJ *** BRIEF TOUCH DOWN. PATH 100 YARDS LONG AND 50 FEET WIDE. TORNADO DESTROYED A LUMBER YARD BUILDING AND CAUSED MINOR DAMAGE TO ANOTHER BUILDING. 15 CARS DAMAGED ACROSS THE STREET BY FLYING DEBRIS FROM LUMBER C
20:28 UTCTSTM WND DMGMount VernonKnox, OHSTURCTURAL DAMAGE TO LUMBER STORAGE BUILDING WITH DEBRIS DAMAGING SURROUNDING PROPERTY.DAMAGE WILL BE SURVEYED.
20:36 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ne Mount VernonKnox, OHNUMEROUS TRESS DOWN ON STATE ROUTE 36 IN HOWARD.
20:42 UTCTSTM WND DMG10 Sw WoosterWayne, OHLARGE TREE DOWN
21:02 UTCTSTM WND DMGMillersburgHolmes, OHA COUPLE TREES DOWN IN THE VICINITY OF MILLERSBURG.
21:10 UTCTSTM WND DMGCoshoctonCoshocton, OHTREES DOWN.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 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.