EF1 tornado, Schumm to Ohio City, Ohio, May 23, 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

May 23, 2011

Touchdown

6:56 PM EDT (22:56 UTC)

Lifted

7:02 PM EDT (23:02 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

4.1 miles (6.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Van Wert County

Touchdown point

40.754, -84.690

Lift-off point

40.755, -84.611

Record number

1105231656-01

A cold front moved through the region, interacting with moderate instability and strong shear. Numerous thunderstorms developed and became severe. A few of the storms took on supercell characteristics and produced brief tornadoes.

A survey of damage was performed by NWS officials, confirming a tornado touched down near the intersection of Walnut Grove and Alspach Roads. As it traveled east, eyewitness reports indicated that at least two funnels were in contact with the ground. They quickly merged into one near Kneller Road, where the greatest concentration of damage was found. As it continued east, the tornado became rain-wrapped and eventually lifted near the intersection of Walnut Grove and Burris Roads. While the majority of the damage was in the range of an EF0, the location where the funnels merged was determined to be caused by winds of between 90 and 95 mph.

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

8 minutes of warning. NWS IWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:48 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:18 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:18 UTC and running to 00:50 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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:39 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.

Fort Wayne (FWA), 53 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), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:58 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.

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

17 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.