Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2013

EF0 tornado, Radnor, Ohio, June 12, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Delaware County on June 12, 2013, touching down at 1:15 AM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 12, 2013
Touchdown
1:15 AM EDT (05:15 UTC)
Lifted
1:16 AM EDT (05:16 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$200,000
Crop damage
$5,000
County
Delaware County
Touchdown point
40.361, -83.182
Lift-off point
40.361, -83.186
Record number
1306122315-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An organized line of convection moved across portions of central Indiana and Ohio during the late evening hours of June 12, lasting into the early morning hours of June 13. The main threats from these storms were damaging winds and isolated weak tornadoes.

The tornado briefly touched down on the west side of Highway 257 southwest of Radnor. The tornado initially hit two barns, destroying one and heavily damaging another. One barn consisted of cinder block walls and tin roofing. Much of the cinder block collapsed, while roofing of this structure with some of the attached cinder block and other bard roofing and walls was lifted across Highway 257 where much of the material was wrapped around trees along the Scioto River. Large portions of the barn roofing was lofted over the tree line along the Scioto River and deposited in the back yards of residences along River Road, on the east side of the river, a distance of two tenths of a mile away. Tree damage along the south side of the brief tornado track was lying in a northeast orientation which was inward toward the tornado track which confirms the convergent circulation. Other damage along the path included snapped large trees, complete destruction of a small shed, and large amounts of debris wrapped around trees. Corn stalks were found in yards of residence on the east side of the Scioto River, with the nearest corn fields nearly a quarter of a mile away. Based on the damage surveyed, the maximum wind speed of this tornado was approximately 85 miles per hour.

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

The warnings

7 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:08 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 03:53 UTC and running to 07:40 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:28 UTC03:53 UTCTornado WatchILN
00:29 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningILN
03:53 UTC07:40 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchILN
04:52 UTC05:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningILN
05:08 UTC05:45 UTCTornado WarningILN
05:26 UTC06:13 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:54 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), 00:00Z

5.3 hours before the tornado, 116 km from the path. June 13, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2013-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2978 joules per kilogram, CIN -57, lifted condensation level 1256 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2013-06-13The 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 160 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
2978 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-57 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3385 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1256 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
160 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
284 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.7
Supercell composite
11.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z

6.7 hours after it, 116 km from the path. June 13, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2013-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 828 joules per kilogram, CIN -86, lifted condensation level 1110 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2013-06-13The 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 144 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
828 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-86 J/kg
Surface CAPE
518 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1110 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
143 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
3.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:13 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
02:36 UTCHAIL 0.885 Sw BellvilleRichland, OH
04:28 UTCTSTM WND DMGRoundheadHardin, OHTREES DOWN
04:33 UTCTSTM WND GST 501 Ssw KentonHardin, OH
04:37 UTCTSTM WND DMGKentonHardin, OHTREES AND POWER POLES DOWN
04:45 UTCTSTM WND GST 513 S BellefontaineLogan, OH
04:55 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ese West MansfieldUnion, OHSTRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO INDUSTRIAL BUILDING
05:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Nnw RichwoodUnion, OHROOF BLOWN OFF HOME
05:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGZanesfieldLogan, OHTREES AND POWER POLES BLOWN DOWN.
05:03 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Ssw RichwoodUnion, OHSTRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO A BARN
05:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Se RichwoodDelaware, OHBARN BLOWN OFF FOUNDATION IN THOMPSON TWP
05:13 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Sw RadnorDelaware, OHA SHED WAS DISPLACED OFF ONE PROPERTY AND ONTO ANOTHER. MULTIPLE PIECES OF LUMBER...SHEET METAL...AND SIDING WERE STREWN ABOUT THE AREA. TIME ESTIMATED FROM ILN RADAR.
05:15 UTCTORNADO 03 Sw RadnorDelaware, OHAN NWS DAMAGE SURVEY CONFIRMED A BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO WITH PRIMARY DAMAGE CONFINED TO BARNS AND OUTBUILDINGS...AS WELL AS TREES.
05:16 UTCDOWNBURSTCaledoniaMarion, OHA THUNDERSTORM DOWNBURST KNOCKED DOWN ABOUT 30 TREES AND CAUSED MINOR DAMAGE TO SEVERAL BUILDINGS.
05:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGDelawareDelaware, OHSEVERAL REPORTS OF TREES DOWN AROUND DELAWARE COUNTY
05:35 UTCTSTM WND DMGMount VernonKnox, OHTREES DOWN...SOME WERE BLOCKING ROADS EAST OF MOUNT VERNON.
05:37 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ese HilliardFranklin, OHROOF DECKING REMOVED FROM A LOWES BUILDING
05:55 UTCTSTM WND GST 48Ktzr Bolton FieldFranklin, OH
06:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Ese HilliardFranklin, OHLARGE TREE LIMB DOWN
06:07 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Sse Downtown ColumbusFranklin, OHLARGE TREE DOWN

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 12, 2013

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 124:08 PM CDTEF3Wright, IA6.2200$500,000
June 124:19 PM CDTEF1Wright, IA5.0125$20,000
June 124:21 PM CDTEF0Wright, IA1.150
June 124:32 PM CDTEF1DeKalb, IL2.3100$20,000
June 124:32 PM CDTEF2Franklin, IA5.2300$300,000
June 124:46 PM CDTEF1Franklin, IA3.475$50,000
June 124:53 PM CDTEF0Franklin, IA1.3125
June 124:56 PM CDTEF0Franklin, IA1.150$10,000
June 126:50 PM CDTEF0Jo Daviess, IL0.520
June 126:53 PM CDTEF2Carroll, IL6.68801
June 127:50 PM CDTEF0Kankakee, IL0.250$35,000
June 1211:27 PM EDTEF0Van Wert, OH0.680
June 1211:35 PM EDTEF0Mercer, OH0.1100$40,000
June 1211:55 PM EDTEF0Henry, OH0.025
June 1211:59 PM EDTEF1Henry, OH0.450
June 1212:02 AM EDTEF1Henry, OH0.275
June 1212:03 AM EDTEF0Henry, OH0.115
June 1212:03 AM EDTEF0Henry, OH0.315
June 1212:03 AM EDTEF0Auglaize, OH2.350$350,000
June 1212:25 AM EDTEF0Wood, OH0.950$100,000

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.