Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2007

EF0 tornado, Carey, Ohio, August 5, 2007

This EF0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Wyandot County on August 5, 2007, touching down at 8:42 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $75,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
August 5, 2007
Touchdown
8:42 PM EDT (00:42 UTC)
Lifted
8:46 PM EDT (00:46 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$75,000
County
Wyandot County
Touchdown point
40.935, -83.370
Lift-off point
40.930, -83.359
Record number
0708051842-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A frontal boundary stretched across northern Ohio during the evening hours of the 5th. This boundary provided a favorable environment that evening for a few thunderstorms to develop across the area that were able to produce a few weak tornadoes.

A tornado touched down along County Road 25A just south of Carey. A storm survey was conducted and this tornado was determined to be an EF0. This tornado damaged a couple of homes and destroyed at least two barns. The damage path was about three quarters of a mile long and about 10 yards in width. The tornado lifted near the intesection of County Road 25A and County Road 98B.

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS CLE issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:39 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:39 UTC01:45 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. The outlook in force was issued at 21:25 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

0.7 hours before the tornado, 171 km from the path. August 6, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2007-08-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1806 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 977 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 2007-08-06The 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 113 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
1806 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2262 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
977 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
113 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
139 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.8
Supercell composite
4.8
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.3 hours after it, 171 km from the path. August 6, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2007-08-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 625 joules per kilogram, CIN -98, lifted condensation level 1000 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 2007-08-06The 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 197 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
625 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-98 J/kg
Surface CAPE
725 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1000 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
197 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
197 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
4.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 137 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:41 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
23:59 UTCTORNADO2 S BettsvilleSeneca, OHHIGH WINDS POSSIBLY ASSOCIATED WITH A TORNADO CAUSED DAMAGE TO A BARN JUST SOUTH OF BETTSVILLE. A SECOND REPORT OF A BARN DAMAGED WAS REPORTED ABOUT 4 MILES EAST NEAR STATE ROUTE 53. NO INJURIES WERE REPORTED.
00:42 UTCTORNADOCareyWyandot, OHA TORNADO WAS SITED ON THE GROUND ON THE SOUTH SIDE OF CAREY. NUMEROUS SITINGS OF FUNNEL CLOUDS AND TORNADO TOUCHDOWNS WERE REPORTED BY TRAINED SPOTTERS CONTINUED EAST TO NEAR TYMOCHTEE THROUGH 924PM EDT. THERE WAS ONE R

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 5, 2007

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 56:13 PM CDTEF0Will, IL0.350$40,000
August 57:50 PM EDTEF0Seneca, OH0.810$60,000

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.