EF2 tornado, Douglas to Kieferville, Ohio, November 17, 2013

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

November 17, 2013

Touchdown

4:52 PM EST (21:52 UTC)

Lifted

5:03 PM EST (22:03 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

11.1 miles (17.9 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Putnam and Paulding counties

Touchdown point

40.961, -84.385

Lift-off point

41.069, -84.227

Record number

1311171552-01

10 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• Barn roof ripped off with both wood rafters and lots of roof sheting carried out through a field to the NW for about a mile to near the Putnam/Paulding County line.
• Start point. Barn damaged with hay wagons thrown and moved.
• Horse trailer flipped onto a pickup a trick, roof damage to barn.
• Siding damage to barn, mobile home shifted off foundation.

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

Deep low pressure moved across the northern Great Lakes, with a strong cold front trailing well south into Arkansas. A 50 to 60 knot low level jet aided in advecting in dewpoints greater than 60 degrees. 0-1km storm relative helicity values of 400 to 600 m2/s2 setup the perfect environment for individual thunderstorms to rapidly rotate. Numerous circulations were noted during the event, some significant, which produced swaths of wind damage as well as several weak to strong tornadoes. Given forward speed of 60 mph or more, the convection quickly translated across northwestern Ohio over a few hour period.

Damage consistent with a tornado, eventually reaching EF2 intensity, was found by a NWS survey team. The tornado touched down at a residence on Township Road 0, west of County Road 27 where a barn suffered some structural damage, with several hay wagons thrown or moved. The tornado continued rapidly northeast, impacting another barn on Route 66, north of Road N. The barn suffered more extensive damage with both wood rafters and lots of roof sheeting being torn off (DI: SBO DOD: 5) and carried through a field for nearly a mile. Maximum wind speeds were likely around 95 mph as the tornado crossed the Putnam/Paulding county line near the intersection of Road 12 and Road 25m.

A tornado which originally touched down in Putnam county briefly crossed into Paulding county, near the intersection of Road M and Road 25m. A mobile home near the county line was impacted by the tornado, causing it to shift off its foundation with minor siding damage (DI: MHSW, DOD: 3). A barn also suffered some minor siding damage. The tornado quickly re-entered Putnam county shortly after.

A tornado that originally touched down in Putnam county briefly crossed the Putnam/Paulding county line before re-entering Putnam county where it continued to move rapidly northeast over mainly open fields until entering the town of Cloverdale where EF2 damage was observed. Extensive tree damage as well as minor to moderate structural damage was noted across the town, with several power poles down. The greatest damage occurred to a church and a brick home. Both suffered extensive damages to some of the walls and the roof (DI: FR12 DOD: 7). A nearby home lost one of its walls (DI:FR12, DOD2) with adjacent hardwood trees suffering greater damage (DI: TH DOD: 4). The tornado exited town and continued northeast for several more miles over open fields and occasional wooded areas with sporadic tree damage noted until finally lifting five miles northeast of Cloverdale. Maximum winds are estimated at 130 mph with a total two county path length of around 11 miles.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS IWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:36 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:28 UTC and running to 23:14 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 High Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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.

Defiance (DFI), 37 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), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:51 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

75 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 76 of them

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.