Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2009

EF1 tornado, Moreland, Ohio, July 31, 2009

This EF1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Wayne County on July 31, 2009, touching down at 7:45 AM EDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $35,000 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 31, 2009
Touchdown
7:45 AM EDT (11:45 UTC)
Lifted
7:47 AM EDT (11:47 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$35,000
County
Wayne County
Touchdown point
40.730, -81.921
Lift-off point
40.730, -81.916
Record number
0907310545-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front moved across northern Ohio early on July 31st. Thunderstorms developed in advance of the front. One of the thunderstorms produced a weak tornado in Wayne County.

A tornado touched down in rural Wayne County about five miles south of downtown Wooster. The tornado was rated an EF1 and was on the ground for around a quarter mile. The damage path was less than 20 yards in width. The tornado touched down about a mile east of State Route 83 on the north side of East Messner Road and continued east for a couple hundred yards before lifting. A pole barn was damaged and portions of a fence knocked down by the tornado. Several trees were toppled along the damage path. Sheet metal from the barn was found as much as a mile and a half away.

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

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:58 UTC16:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryCLE

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:59 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), 00:00Z

11.8 hours before the tornado, 158 km from the path. July 31, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 2009-07-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 833 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 704 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 2009-07-31The 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 112 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
833 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1487 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
704 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
112 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
127 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
3.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 12:00Z

0.2 hours after it, 158 km from the path. July 31, 2009.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 2009-07-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 157 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 504 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, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 2009-07-31The 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 11 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
157 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
422 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
504 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
11 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
37 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Wooster (BJJ), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
09:56 UTC7067170° 6 kt1010.5+RA BR
10:05 UTC69.866.2190° 5 kt1010.5+RA BR
10:13 UTC69.866.20° 0 kt1010.8+RA BR
10:23 UTC6866.2290° 10 kt151011.2+RA BR
10:56 UTC6766210° 7 kt1011.2+RA BR
11:01 UTC66.264.4210° 5 kt1011.2+RA BR
11:07 UTC66.264.4210° 6 kt1011.2-RA BR
11:15 UTC66.264.4230° 5 kt1011.5RA BR
11:23 UTC66.264.4230° 3 kt1011.2-RA BR
11:56 UTC68660° 0 kt1011.5
12:10 UTC6866.220° 3 kt1011.5BR
12:34 UTC69.866.210° 3 kt1011.9
12:41 UTC69.866.240° 3 kt1011.9
12:56 UTC69660° 0 kt1011.9
13:40 UTC69.866.2360° 4 kt1012.2

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

The radar

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:45 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
11:45 UTCTORNADOWoosterWayne, OHCONFIRMED TORNADO CAUSED MAJOR DAMAGE TO POLE BARN ROOF STRUCTURE. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON EYEWITNESS OBSERVATIONS.

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 31, 2009

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 312:06 PM EDTEF1Frederick, MD2.6125
July 312:08 PM EDTEF1Frederick, MD2.6350
July 312:40 PM EDTEF0Carroll, MD0.9100
July 312:42 PM EDTEF1Howard, MD0.150
July 313:56 PM EDTEF1Western Connecticut Planning Region, CT0.9100$10,000
July 314:28 PM EDTEF1South Central Connecticut Planning Region, CT2.9100$10,000
July 318:42 PM CDTEF0Gove, KS0.310
July 318:44 PM CDTEF0Gove, KS0.310
July 319:25 PM CDTEF0Lane, KS0.740
July 319:32 PM CDTEF0Ness, KS0.4100

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.