EF1 tornado, Monticello to Spencerville, Ohio, April 19, 2011

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

April 19, 2011

Touchdown

11:40 PM EDT (03:40 UTC)

Lifted

11:44 PM EDT (03:44 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

4.0 miles (6.5 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Van Wert and Allen counties

Touchdown point

40.697, -84.425

Lift-off point

40.733, -84.365

Record number

1104192140-02

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2.

• At the beginning of the path near Lake Street in Celina, substantial roof and chimney damage was observed and very large trees were uprooted and snapped. Further to the northeast along Havemann Road, damage occurred to a home improvement warehouse, where as much as twenty percent of the roof structure was uplifted and the HVAC units were moved. In addition, lumber impaled roofing material and damage occurred to indoor inventory. Also at this location, wooden fence walls were down and snapped at the base of their four by four fence posts. Nearby, numerous power poles were snapped and metal light posts were down. On the northwest corner of Havemann and Route 29, a large brick free standing grocery building suffered major damage, including nearly all of the roof being lifted off and one of the brick walls collapsing. Further to the northeast along the path, substantial damage occurred to a home along Staeger Road. The entire attached garage was destroyed with nearly a third of the roofing on the home gone. The siding on the second story of the home had been impaled by a two by four section of lumber. A small sport utility vehicle parked in the rear of the home was toppled and a twenty-five foot mobile home was moved nearly thirty yards. A forty by fifty foot steel framed outbuilding was completely demolished. A pontoon boat which was within this outbuilding was also moved at least fifteen yards. Additional damage further to the northeast in Mercer County occurred along Riley Road between Oldtown and Howick Roads. One wooden and one steel barn were destroyed. An additional steel frame building suffered door damage and damage to part of the roof and a wall. Estimated maximum wind speeds based on damage is 115 miles per hour.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A warm front attempted to move in during the day, but a strong easterly flow and extensive low clouds and fog did not allow the boundary to mix northward. Low pressure moved from Missouri towards northern Indiana during the evening hours. A line of strong to severe storms initiated ahead of the low and along the warm front and moved into southern parts of the area. A strong low level jet allowed for temperatures and moisture above the surface to increase, causing elevated instability. Damage occurred across several counties in southern portions with much of it occurring at tree top and roof levels, suggesting winds could not fully mix down. Surveys of several areas indicated that brief circulations were embedded within these wind damage swaths, leading to the confirmation of several weak tornadoes.

A NWS survey of damage in Van Wert County determined that a circulation developed and touched down on State Road 116 south of Kolter Road. Damage consisted of mainly uprooted trees and broken tree limbs as it crossed into Allen County.

A tornado continued into Allen County from Van Wert County impacting several structures. A large pole barn had roughly one-third of the roof removed, with a older barn being destroyed and debris thrown towards a residence. A piece of board was driven into the side of the home with debris being carried about a half mile to the north and east, being lifted over a tract of trees. The circulation appears to have lifted shortly after depositing the debris. The maximum width of the tornado was around 100 yards and winds were estimated in the 95 to 100 mph range.

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

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

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:37 UTC and running to 04:20 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:10 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.

Lima (AOH), 31 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), 131 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:41 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 2011 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

69 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 70 of them

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.