Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2010

EF1 tornado, Amboy to Conneaut, Ohio, June 27, 2010

From Amboy to Conneaut, this EF1 tornado ran 2.3 miles across Ashtabula County on June 27, 2010, touching down at 6:54 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $300,000 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
June 27, 2010
Touchdown
6:54 PM EDT (22:54 UTC)
Lifted
6:59 PM EDT (22:59 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
2.3 miles (3.7 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$300,000
County
Ashtabula County
Touchdown point
41.952, -80.597
Lift-off point
41.958, -80.554
Record number
1006271654-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An area of low pressure moved east across the Great Lakes region during the afternoon and evening hours of June 27th. A warm front stretching southeast from the low moved across northern Ohio during the afternoon and evening hours. Showers and thunderstorms developed along the front with a few of the stronger storms becoming severe. Very strong winds were associated with many of the thunderstorms. A 78 mph wind gust was measured in Findlay. A tornado hit Ashtabula County during the evening hours causing some minor damage.

An EF1 tornado touched down near the intersection of Lake Erie Avenue and Point Drive on the west end of Conneaut. The tornado then traveled east approximately two and a quarter miles before lifting near the Intersection of Broad and Russell Streets. The damage path was no more than 100 yards in width and consisted of mainly downed trees and limbs Some roof damage was also observed, The roof of at least one garage was completely torn off. Many vehicles were damaged by fallen trees and flying debris.

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

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS CLE issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:50 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:21 UTC and running to 02:10 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:21 UTC02:10 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchCLE
22:27 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCLE
22:50 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningCLE
23:09 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:44 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

10.9 hours before the tornado, 176 km from the path. June 27, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 2010-06-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 813 joules per kilogram, CIN -20, lifted condensation level 858 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2010-06-27The 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 76 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
813 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-20 J/kg
Surface CAPE
837 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
858 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
96 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
2.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 00:00Z

1.1 hours after it, 176 km from the path. June 28, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 2010-06-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1297 joules per kilogram, CIN -17, lifted condensation level 1277 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2010-06-28The 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 194 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
1297 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1867 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1277 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
194 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
216 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
7.7
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:55 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
22:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGConneautAshtabula, OHTREES AND POWER LINES DOWN.
22:54 UTCTORNADOConneautAshtabula, OHPOSSIBLE TORNADO. MOST DAMAGE IS TREES DOWN, TREES ON HOUSES, SHINGLES AND SIDING DAMAGE AND A TRAILER MAY HAVE BEEN BLOWN OVER ON I90 AND ROUTE 7.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 27, 2010

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 271:08 PM EDTEF0Van Buren, MI0.750$100,000
June 271:20 PM CDTEF1Racine, WI4.61001$75,000
June 272:31 PM EDTEF1Wayne, MI1.4200$500,000
June 277:06 PM EDTEF1Saint Clair, MI2.925014$700,000
June 277:36 PM EDTEF0Erie, PA0.275$120,000
June 278:32 PM EDTEF0Sanilac, MI0.550$75,000
June 279:05 PM CDTEF0Jefferson, IL0.350$2,000
June 2711:05 PM EDTEF1Allegany, NY7.4250$75,000

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.