EF0 tornado, (Lck)Rckenbckr Arpt to Canal Winchester, Ohio, April 20, 2011

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

April 20, 2011

Touchdown

2:26 AM EDT (06:26 UTC)

Lifted

2:27 AM EDT (06:27 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Franklin County

Touchdown point

39.855, -82.850

Lift-off point

39.856, -82.848

Record number

1104200026-01

A line of storms moved through the area during the late night hours of April 19th and into the early morning hours of April 20th.

Damage was first observed at the western end of London-Lancaster Road, just east of Rickenbacker Air Force Base. A large portion of the roof of a single family residence was removed. Damage was also observed on Pontius Road where one power pole was snapped at the base and several others were bent over. A large storage shed constructed of wood frame with metal sheeting was destroyed. At the end of the path, roof damage was observed with a Richardson Road residence. A large number of trees were also uprooted and broken along this path. The estimated maximum wind speed based on damage is around 109 miles per hour.

Twelve greenhouses constructed of metal poles overlaid with a plastic material were damaged to various degrees. The greenhouse farthest west was hit first by the circulation and was almost completely destroyed. Many of the plants inside the greenhouses were low to the ground and therefore sustained very little damage. A metal door on a small warehouse attached to the greenhouses was bent. Balled and bur-lapped trees were pulled toward the center of the path. Additional damage at this location included plant transport carts pulled from a loading dock into a small pond. A small metal storage shed toward the end of the observed path was also heavily distorted. Trees west of the damage path and a house immediately east of the path were not damaged. Estimated maximum wind speed based on damage is around 83 miles per hour.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:16 UTC and running to 07:50 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 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.

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:27 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

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.