Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2011

EF1 tornado, Grgetwn Brown Co Arp to Russellville, Ohio, June 27, 2011

From Grgetwn Brown Co Arp to Russellville, this EF1 tornado ran 1.6 miles across Brown County on June 27, 2011, touching down at 7:54 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $90,000 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, 2011
Touchdown
7:54 PM EDT (23:54 UTC)
Lifted
7:58 PM EDT (23:58 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
1.6 miles (2.5 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$90,000
County
Brown County
Touchdown point
38.856, -83.856
Lift-off point
38.860, -83.827
Record number
1106271754-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A warm front lifting northward across the Ohio Valley combined with moderate low level shear during the afternoon and evening hours. This helped to produce scattered thunderstorms across south central Ohio. Some of these storms produced funnel clouds and tornadoes.

The tornado touched down north of the intersection of US Highway 68 and State Route 125. The tornado moved east through several wooded areas where it snapped and uprooted numerous trees. The tornado then crossed State Route 125 near Township Highway 15 where it demolished four small barns. The tornado then lifted just before crossing County Highway 77. The maximum estimated wind speed based on damage was 90 miles per hour.

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:59 UTC00:30 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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

11.9 hours before the tornado, 64 km from the path. June 27, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2011-06-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -76468, lifted condensation level 1155 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2011-06-27The 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 9 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 knots.1939Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-76468 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1155 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
9 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
35 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.1 hours after it, 64 km from the path. June 28, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2011-06-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1307 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 768 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 2011-06-28The 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 190 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
1307 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1757 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
768 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
190 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
218 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
5.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:50 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 E GeorgetownBrown, OHSTATE PATROL REPORTED SEEING A FUNNEL CLOUD THAT APPEARED TO BE BREAKING UP NEAR INTERSECTION OF SR 125 AND US 68.
23:54 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 E GeorgetownBrown, OHPOSSIBLE TORNADO. TREES AND WIRES DOWN NEAR US 68/SR 125 AND DAY HILL-ARNHEIM RD. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
23:54 UTCTORNADO 12 E GeorgetownBrown, OHTREES AND WIRES DOWN NEAR US 68/SR 125 AND DAY HILL-ARNHEIM RD. 4 BARNS DAMAGED OR DESTROYED. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. CORRECTED REFERENCE CITY FROM GERTRUDE TO GEORGETOWN.
23:54 UTCTORNADO 12 E GertrudeBrown, OHTREES AND WIRES DOWN NEAR US 68/SR 125 AND DAY HILL-ARNHEIM RD. 4 BARNS DAMAGED OR DESTROYED. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
23:54 UTCTORNADO 12 E GertrudeBrown, OHTREES AND WIRES DOWN NEAR US 68/SR 125 AND DAY HILL-ARNHEIM RD. 4 BARNS DAMAGED OR DESTROYED. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
00:30 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDLocust GroveAdams, OHROTATING FUNNEL CLOUD SPOTTED NEAR INTERSECTION OF SR 73 AND SR 41
00:43 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDPoplar GrovePike, OHOFFICER WITNESSED ROTATING FUNNEL CLOUD VERY LOW TO GROUND NEAR ADAMS/PIKE COUNTY LINE...BUT DID NOT SEE CIRCULATION AT THE GROUND.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 27, 2011

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 271:05 AM CDTEF1Monroe, MO0.440
June 271:09 AM CDTEF0Ralls, MO0.670
June 278:53 PM EDTEF0Pike, OH1.550$3,000
June 278:54 PM EDTEF0Clinton, OH0.025

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.