EF0 tornado, Pierpont, Ohio, May 26, 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

May 26, 2011

Touchdown

4:35 PM EDT (20:35 UTC)

Lifted

4:37 PM EDT (20:37 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.2 miles (1.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Ashtabula County

Touchdown point

41.748, -80.596

Lift-off point

41.748, -80.573

Record number

1105261435-01

Between May 25th and May 26th heavy rainfall occurred as a warm front lifted north across the area. A strong southerly flow, ahead of a cold front, transported very moist air through Tennessee, Kentucky and into Ohio on the 25th. Surface dew points were in the 60s. Wave after wave in the mid and upper levels helped trigger widespread showers, with embedded thunderstorms. High rainfall rates of over an inch per hour occured with the stronger storms, resulting in widespread flood warnings across Northern Ohio. The showers continued into the evening hours, and then reformed early on the 26th. By this point the ground was saturated and streams and creeks were running high. Additional storms compounded lingering flooding conditions, necessitating a second round of widespread flood warnings. Numerous state and local routes in the area were closed because of the quickly rising and flowing water.

An EF0 tornado touched down west of Pierpont near the intersection of Lewis Road and State Route 167. The tornado continued east along State Route 167 for just over a mile before lifting just west of the center of Pierpont. Ten homes and buildings along the damage path sustained damage, mainly from lost roofing or siding. Many trees were also downed. Straight line winds may have contributed to the damage path which was no more than 100 yards in width.

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.

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 19:57 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.

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:36 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

14 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.