Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2009

EF1 tornado, Sargents, Ohio, July 11, 2009

This EF1 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Pike County on July 11, 2009, touching down at 4:20 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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 mph

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
July 11, 2009
Touchdown
4:20 PM EDT (20:20 UTC)
Lifted
4:21 PM EDT (20:21 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000
County
Pike County
Touchdown point
38.999, -82.976
Lift-off point
38.990, -82.972
Record number
0907111420-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A large area of thunderstorms moved through during the afternoon hours sparking straight line damaging winds, large hail, flash flooding, and tornadoes.

Damage indicates that the tornado touched down briefly in two locations. The initial touch down occurred near Loop Road where an estimated 15 trees were uprooted and knocked down. The tornado then briefly lifted before touching down again in a cemetery off of Bailey Chapel Road. There, it uprooted and knocked down approximately 10 more trees, and lifted a nearby trampoline over a fence.

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

The warnings

17 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:03 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:48 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningILN
19:57 UTC20:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILN
20:03 UTC20:45 UTCTornado WarningILN
20:22 UTC20:45 UTCTornado WarningILN
21:00 UTC00:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryILN

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

8.3 hours before the tornado, 86 km from the path. July 11, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2009-07-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 912 joules per kilogram, CIN -49, lifted condensation level 1063 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 2009-07-11The 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 52 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
912 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-49 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1970 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1063 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.7 hours after it, 86 km from the path. July 12, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2009-07-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 504 joules per kilogram, CIN -95, lifted condensation level 920 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 2009-07-12The 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 125 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 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
504 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-95 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2563 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
920 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
125 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
84 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
5.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:20 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
19:55 UTCTORNADO 111 Ssw ChillicotheRoss, OHEF-1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN INTERMITTENTLY ALONG A 3 MILE PATH BETWEEN SUMMITHILL AND DENVER...DESTROYING A HOME AND 2 BARNS AND DAMAGING 6 ADDITIONAL HOMES AND 2 MOBILE HOMES.
19:55 UTCTORNADO 111 Sw ChillicotheRoss, OHEF-1 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN INTERMITTENTLY ALONG A 3 MILE PATH BETWEEN SUMMITHILL AND DENVER...DESTROYING A HOME AND 2 BARNS AND DAMAGING 6 ADDITIONAL HOMES AND 2 MOBILE HOMES.
19:59 UTCTSTM WND DMGBuchananPike, OH*** 5 INJ *** STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS DESTROYED 3 MOBILE HOMES. 2 OTHER MOBILE HOMES WERE PARTIALLY DAMAGED AND SEVERAL TREES WERE KNOCKED DOWN.
20:00 UTCTORNADO10 Ssw ChillicotheRoss, OHPOSSIBLE TORNADO NEAR S. R.772 AND VALLEY-SCHAFFER-DENVER ROAD OR NEAR SUMMITHILL. HOUSES DAMAGED...TREES AND POWER LINES DOWNED.
20:01 UTCTORNADOBuchananPike, OHPOSSIBLE TORNADO WITH TREES DOWN AND HOUSE TRAILERS DESTROYED.
20:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 S WaverlyPike, OHTREES DOWN AND SOME TOPPED EAST OF STE RTE 23 IN THE SHYVILLE AREA.
20:20 UTCTORNADO 15 Sse PiketonPike, OHTWO BRIEF TOUCHDOWNS OF AN EF-1 TORNADO NEAR LOOP ROAD AND BAILEY CHAPEL ROAD. AN ESTIMATED 25 TREES WERE KNOCKED DOWN OR UPROOTED AND A TRAMPOLINE WAS LIFTED OVER A FENCE.
20:32 UTCTSTM WND DMG9 Nne PortsmouthScioto, OHEXTENSIVE TREE DAMAGE ACROSS EASTERN SCIOTO COUNTY INCLUDING THE TOWNS OF MINFORD...WHEELERSBURG AND SOUTH WEBSTER.
20:54 UTCTSTM WND DMGWheelersburgScioto, OHSTRAIGHT-LINE WINDS UPROOTED AND DOWNED AN ESTIMATED 600 TREES ALONG A 5 MILE PATH. THE ROOF OF A HORSE BARN WAS TORN OFF ALONG WITH A TOTAL OF 6 BARNS DAMAGED.
21:00 UTCTSTM WND GST 70WheelersburgScioto, OHSEVERAL TREES DOWN OR TOPS SNAPPED OFF. GOLFBALL SIZE HAIL.
21:06 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDPedroLawrence, OHEVENT TIME RADAR ESTIMATED. EXACT TIME REPORTED AS UNKNOWN.
21:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ne IrontonLawrence, OHMULTIPLE TREES DOWN ALONG COUNTY ROADS 5 AND 29 AND ALONG STATE ROUTES 93 AND 141
21:26 UTCHAIL 0.25IrontonLawrence, OH
21:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGIrontonLawrence, OH
21:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG8 Ne IrontonLawrence, OHMULTIPLE TREES DOWN ALONG COUNTY ROADS 5 AND 29 AND STATE ROUTES 93 AND 141.
21:47 UTCHEAVY RAIN 3LucasvilleScioto, OHSTREETS AND RESIDENCES FLOODED.
22:00 UTCFLASH FLOODWheelersburgScioto, OHFLASH FLOODING REPORTED NEAR THE PORTER TOWNSHIP FIRE DEPARTMENT.
22:00 UTCLIGHTNINGPedroLawrence, OH3 INJURIES DUE TO LIGHTNING

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2009 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 11, 2009

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 113:55 PM EDTEF1Ross, OH3.1440$95,000
July 115:40 PM EDTEF0Union, PA1.050$5,000
July 115:35 PM MDTEF0Elbert, CO0.150
July 116:55 PM MDTEF0Stark, ND4.030

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.