EF0 tornado, Glandorf, Ohio, May 30, 2008

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 30, 2008

Touchdown

12:28 AM EDT (04:28 UTC)

Lifted

12:31 AM EDT (04:31 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

3.2 miles (5.2 km)

Path width

464 yards (424 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.2 million

County

Putnam County

Touchdown point

41.048, -84.126

Lift-off point

41.049, -84.064

Record number

0805302228-01

A moderately unstable, sheared environment was in place across northwestern Ohio ahead of a cold front. The atmosphere remained capped until the evening hours, when storms began to develop rapidly with a few becoming severe. The severe storms were confined south of a Paulding to Leipsic line. A tornado touched down in the Glandorf area with other areas seeing straight-line wind damage.

The tornado formed near Road 13I just south of Township Highway I and dissipated near the Firefox Lake Private Subdivision. As the tornado moved toward the Blanchard River it quickly widened to a peak width of 464 yards or just a little over a quarter of a mile. The tornado continued east before crossing the river again and quickly weakening. The most significant damage occurred along Township Highway I between Roads 13 and 13I. The tornado destroyed six outbuildings including pole barns and well built buildings constructed on a foundation. Over a half dozen homes were damaged with several sustaining major damage including the complete removal of roofs. A large amount of agricultural equipment and eleven vehicles were also damaged or destroyed with total monetary losses initially estimated at $1,200,000.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS IWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 04:00 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:30 UTC.

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 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 00:53 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 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.

Findlay (FDY), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 139 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:28 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.