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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:28 UTC | 03:53 UTC | Tornado Watch | ILN |
| 00:29 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | ILN |
| 03:53 UTC | 07:40 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | ILN |
| 04:52 UTC | 05:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ILN |
| 05:08 UTC | 05:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | ILN |
| 05:26 UTC | 06:13 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ILN |
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.
- 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
Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z
6.7 hours after it, 116 km from the path. June 13, 2013.
- 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
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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:36 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 5 Sw Bellville | Richland, OH | |
| 04:28 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Roundhead | Hardin, OH | TREES DOWN |
| 04:33 UTC | TSTM WND GST 50 | 1 Ssw Kenton | Hardin, OH | |
| 04:37 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Kenton | Hardin, OH | TREES AND POWER POLES DOWN |
| 04:45 UTC | TSTM WND GST 51 | 3 S Bellefontaine | Logan, OH | |
| 04:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Ese West Mansfield | Union, OH | STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO INDUSTRIAL BUILDING |
| 05:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nnw Richwood | Union, OH | ROOF BLOWN OFF HOME |
| 05:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Zanesfield | Logan, OH | TREES AND POWER POLES BLOWN DOWN. |
| 05:03 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Ssw Richwood | Union, OH | STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO A BARN |
| 05:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Se Richwood | Delaware, OH | BARN BLOWN OFF FOUNDATION IN THOMPSON TWP |
| 05:13 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Sw Radnor | Delaware, OH | A 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 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 3 Sw Radnor | Delaware, OH | AN NWS DAMAGE SURVEY CONFIRMED A BRIEF EF-0 TORNADO WITH PRIMARY DAMAGE CONFINED TO BARNS AND OUTBUILDINGS...AS WELL AS TREES. |
| 05:16 UTC | DOWNBURST | Caledonia | Marion, OH | A THUNDERSTORM DOWNBURST KNOCKED DOWN ABOUT 30 TREES AND CAUSED MINOR DAMAGE TO SEVERAL BUILDINGS. |
| 05:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Delaware | Delaware, OH | SEVERAL REPORTS OF TREES DOWN AROUND DELAWARE COUNTY |
| 05:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Mount Vernon | Knox, OH | TREES DOWN...SOME WERE BLOCKING ROADS EAST OF MOUNT VERNON. |
| 05:37 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ese Hilliard | Franklin, OH | ROOF DECKING REMOVED FROM A LOWES BUILDING |
| 05:55 UTC | TSTM WND GST 48 | Ktzr Bolton Field | Franklin, OH | |
| 06:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ese Hilliard | Franklin, OH | LARGE TREE LIMB DOWN |
| 06:07 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Sse Downtown Columbus | Franklin, OH | LARGE 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.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 12 | 4:08 PM CDT | EF3 | Wright, IA | 6.2 | 200 | $500,000 | ||
| June 12 | 4:19 PM CDT | EF1 | Wright, IA | 5.0 | 125 | $20,000 | ||
| June 12 | 4:21 PM CDT | EF0 | Wright, IA | 1.1 | 50 | |||
| June 12 | 4:32 PM CDT | EF1 | DeKalb, IL | 2.3 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| June 12 | 4:32 PM CDT | EF2 | Franklin, IA | 5.2 | 300 | $300,000 | ||
| June 12 | 4:46 PM CDT | EF1 | Franklin, IA | 3.4 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| June 12 | 4:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Franklin, IA | 1.3 | 125 | |||
| June 12 | 4:56 PM CDT | EF0 | Franklin, IA | 1.1 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| June 12 | 6:50 PM CDT | EF0 | Jo Daviess, IL | 0.5 | 20 | |||
| June 12 | 6:53 PM CDT | EF2 | Carroll, IL | 6.6 | 880 | 1 | ||
| June 12 | 7:50 PM CDT | EF0 | Kankakee, IL | 0.2 | 50 | $35,000 | ||
| June 12 | 11:27 PM EDT | EF0 | Van Wert, OH | 0.6 | 80 | |||
| June 12 | 11:35 PM EDT | EF0 | Mercer, OH | 0.1 | 100 | $40,000 | ||
| June 12 | 11:55 PM EDT | EF0 | Henry, OH | 0.0 | 25 | |||
| June 12 | 11:59 PM EDT | EF1 | Henry, OH | 0.4 | 50 | |||
| June 12 | 12:02 AM EDT | EF1 | Henry, OH | 0.2 | 75 | |||
| June 12 | 12:03 AM EDT | EF0 | Henry, OH | 0.1 | 15 | |||
| June 12 | 12:03 AM EDT | EF0 | Henry, OH | 0.3 | 15 | |||
| June 12 | 12:03 AM EDT | EF0 | Auglaize, OH | 2.3 | 50 | $350,000 | ||
| June 12 | 12:25 AM EDT | EF0 | Wood, OH | 0.9 | 50 | $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.