Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2007
EF1 tornado, Lodi, Ohio, August 9, 2007
This EF1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Medina County on August 9, 2007, touching down at 4:35 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $175,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF1
- Date
- August 9, 2007
- Touchdown
- 4:35 PM EDT (20:35 UTC)
- Lifted
- 4:40 PM EDT (20:40 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $175,000
- County
- Medina County
- Touchdown point
- 41.057, -82.035
- Lift-off point
- 41.059, -82.020
- Record number
- 0708091435-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A frontal boundary was oriented west to east across central Ohio. The surface frontal boundary, in combination with upper level atmospheric support, allowed for severe thunderstorms to develop across the region. Many of the thunderstorms that day were severe, and even a few tornadoes developed across northern Ohio.
A storm survey revealed that an EF1 tornado touched down on a farm about two miles north of Lodi, just north of U.S. Route 224. Three barns were destroyed by the tornado. As many as 100 dairy cows were trapped in a barn that collapsed and had to be rescued from the debris. Some of the animals were killed or had to be put down because the injuries were so severe. Dozens of trees were damaged along the damage path which was about a mile in length and no more than 50 yards in width.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
12 minutes of warning. NWS CLE issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:23 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:08 UTC and running to 23:05 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 08:04 UTC | 09:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CLE |
| 09:02 UTC | 13:00 UTC | Flood Advisory | CLE |
| 20:08 UTC | 23:05 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | CLE |
| 20:23 UTC | 21:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | CLE |
| 21:19 UTC | 23:51 UTC | Flood Advisory | CLE |
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 19:56 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
8.6 hours before the tornado, 178 km from the path. August 9, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 685 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -50 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 355 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 717 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 17 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 124 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 218 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.5
- Supercell composite
- 3.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 00:00Z
3.4 hours after it, 178 km from the path. August 10, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 178 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -54 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 789 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 722 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 23 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 111 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 118 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.7 K/km
The surface observations
Wooster (BJJ), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:56 UTC | 77 | 71 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.2 | ||
| 19:56 UTC | 82 | 73 | 110° 6 kt | 1009.1 | ||
| 20:41 UTC | 78.8 | 73.4 | 320° 30 kt | 52 | 1013.5 | VCTS SQ |
| 20:49 UTC | 73.4 | 66.2 | 300° 26 kt | 52 | 1013.5 | +TSRA SQ |
| 20:54 UTC | 71.6 | 66.2 | 280° 16 kt | 36 | 1013.2 | +TSRA FG |
| 20:56 UTC | 71 | 67 | 290° 11 kt | 36 | 1012.9 | +TSRA FG |
| 21:07 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 330° 4 kt | 1011.9 | +TSRA BR | |
| 21:13 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 30° 6 kt | 1011.5 | TSRA BR | |
| 21:21 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 20° 7 kt | 1011.2 | -TSRA BR | |
| 21:56 UTC | 70 | 67 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.2 | TSRA BR | |
| 22:03 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.2 | -RA BR | |
| 22:28 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 170° 3 kt | 1011.2 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:33 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:04 UTC | TORNADO | Shelby | Richland, OH | POSSIBLE TORNADO DESTROYED BUILDING |
| 20:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Norwalk | Huron, OH | LARGE LIMB DOWN ON TOWNSEND AVENUE. |
| 20:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Shelby | Richland, OH | FACTORY ROOF BLOWN OFF. LARGE TREES DOWN. |
| 20:12 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Shelby | Richland, OH | 20 FOOT BY 20 FOOT BRICK WALL BLOWN DOWN. A LOT OF ROOF DAMAGE. |
| 20:12 UTC | TORNADO | Ontario | Richland, OH | POSSIBLE TORNADO TOUCH DOWN |
| 20:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Medina | Medina, OH | NEW AND OLD HIGH SCHOOLS HAD PORTIONS OF ROOF TORN OFF. PICNIC TABLES BLOWN ACROSS PROPERTY. SIDING TORN OFF. |
| 20:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Mansfield | Richland, OH | LARGE TREE DOWN ON A MOBILE HOME FROM HIGH WINDS. NO INJURIES. |
| 20:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Norwalk | Huron, OH | TREE DOWN ON DUBLIN ROAD. |
| 20:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 10 Ne Ashland | Ashland, OH | ROOF OFF BLACK RIVER HIGH SCHOOL AND MANY TREES DOWN. |
| 20:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Lodi | Medina, OH | SEVERAL DAMAGED BUILDINGS ON FRINGE OF TOWN. MANY TREES DOWN. |
| 20:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Doylestown | Wayne, OH | NUMEROUS LIMBS DOWN. |
| 20:53 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Rittman | Wayne, OH | 2 TREES DOWN ON HOUSES |
| 21:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 E Portage Lakes | Summit, OH | TREES DOWN IN COVENTRY TOWNSHIP |
| 21:05 UTC | TORNADO | Massillon | Stark, OH | POSSIBLE BRIEF TORNADO TOUCH DOWN |
| 21:10 UTC | TORNADO | Akron | Summit, OH | POSSIBLE TORNADO VISIBLE BY SPOTTER AT CORNER OF ARLINGTON ROAD AND INTERSTATE 77. |
| 21:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Green | Summit, OH | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN IN NIMISCILA LAKE. |
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 9, 2007
3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.