EF0 tornado, Rockford, Ohio, June 12, 2013

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

June 12, 2013

Touchdown

11:35 PM EDT (03:35 UTC)

Lifted

11:36 PM EDT (03:36 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.1 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

County

Mercer County

Touchdown point

40.720, -84.680

Lift-off point

40.720, -84.679

Record number

1306122135-01

14 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• 2 large trees laying to the southeast Survey completed by Van Wert County EMA Director
• tree snap off laying north, a 4 sale reality sign was lifted and carried 70 mile NE to Finday, Ohio here it was found in the eve of a house. Survey Completed by Van Wert County EMA Director
• Witness observed tornado come to the ground snapping off the top half of a 30 foot pine tree and 30 foot maple tree.
• Front porch ripped off home. Minor damage to roof of home.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

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 to the West of River Train Road. Ten percent of a large aluminum barn was removed and had four garage doors blown out. Some of the debris from this building caused collateral impact damage to surrounding structures on both north and south facing aspects. A large dent occurred near the top of the southwest side of a grain silo. Another aluminum building incurred siding damage and a second story window was blown in from the south. This property was surrounded by farmland and no additional damage was noted in the area. Based on the damage surveyed, the maximum wind speed from this tornado was estimated to be 75 miles per hour.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:02 UTC and running to 05:50 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 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 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 Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:32 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 2013 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

20 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.