Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2010

EF0 tornado, Taylor, Ohio, September 22, 2010

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Franklin County on September 22, 2010, touching down at 4:58 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
September 22, 2010
Touchdown
4:58 PM EDT (20:58 UTC)
Lifted
4:59 PM EDT (20:59 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Franklin County
Touchdown point
39.980, -82.850
Lift-off point
39.980, -82.849
Record number
1009221458-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak frontal boundary pushed south into the region with modest instability and shear. The storms were generally poorly organized but managed to produce some pockets of strong to severe wind. One brief tornado touchdown also occurred with the storms.

A Columbus metro traffic camera at the intersection of Interstate 270 and Broad Street recorded a very brief tornado touchdown just north of this location. No reports of damage were received in the immediate area, but the video footage does show a brief tornadic circulation in contact with the ground. Winds with this tornado are estimated to be around 65 miles per hour.

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

The warnings

10 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:48 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:19 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:25 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILN
20:48 UTC21:19 UTCTornado WarningILN

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 22:17 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

9.0 hours before the tornado, 102 km from the path. September 22, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2010-09-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 846 joules per kilogram, CIN -113, lifted condensation level 1413 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 2010-09-22The 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 30 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
846 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-113 J/kg
Surface CAPE
274 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1413 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
111 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.0 hours after it, 102 km from the path. September 23, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2010-09-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 587 joules per kilogram, CIN -122, lifted condensation level 1418 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 2010-09-23The 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 122 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
587 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-122 J/kg
Surface CAPE
438 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1418 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
165 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Columbus (CMH), 3 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:51 UTC8959270° 18 kt241016.6
20:23 UTC8662.6360° 10 kt211016.6
20:51 UTC8564320° 7 kt1017.3
20:59 UTC82.464.4320° 34 kt451018.3-TSRA SQ
21:44 UTC71.666.2310° 10 kt171019.3-RA BR
21:51 UTC7066330° 9 kt1019RA BR
22:40 UTC69.866.2320° 3 kt1019.3+RA BR
22:49 UTC69.866.2340° 8 kt1019.3-RA BR
22:51 UTC7067340° 9 kt1019.3-RA BR

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

The radar

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:58 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
20:29 UTCTSTM WND DMGPlain CityUnion, OHLARGE BRANCHES WERE BROKEN
20:34 UTCTSTM WND DMGHilliardFranklin, OHLARGE BRANCHES DOWN.
20:40 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Sse DublinFranklin, OHONE TREE DOWNED AND BLOCKING THE INTERSECTION AT FRANTZ ROAD AND DUBLIN ROAD.
20:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGColumbusFranklin, OHLARGE BRANCHES DOWN.
20:46 UTCTSTM WND GST 584 Se DublinFranklin, OHREPORTED AT OSU AIRPORT
20:46 UTCTSTM WND GST 58ColumbusFranklin, OHREPORTED AT OSU AIRPORT
20:49 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Wsw WestervilleFranklin, OHTREES DOWN.
20:58 UTCTORNADO 04 Ene BexleyFranklin, OHVIDEO FOOTAGE FROM COLUMBUS METRO TRAFFIC CAMERA SHOWS A BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN ALONG I-270 JUST NORTH OF BROAD STREET. WINDS ESTIMATED AT 65 MPH. TORNADO LASTED LESS THAN A MINUTE WITH NO SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE IN THE AREA
21:10 UTCTSTM WND GST 505 Nw BexleyFranklin, OHCORNER OF LANE AND HIGH IN COLUMBUS.
21:10 UTCTSTM WND GST 50ColumbusFranklin, OHCORNER OF LANE AND HIGH
21:30 UTCTSTM WND GST 604 N GranvilleLicking, OHHAM OPERATOR MEASURED A 60 MPH GUST

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

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.