EF0 tornado, Phillipsburg, Ohio, February 20, 2014

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

February 20, 2014

Touchdown

10:53 PM EST (03:53 UTC)

Lifted

10:55 PM EST (03:55 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.3 km)

Path width

80 yards (73 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Montgomery County

Touchdown point

39.889, -84.408

Lift-off point

39.906, -84.376

Record number

1402202153-02

A cold strong front crossed the region during the evening of February 20 into the early morning of February 21. Strong winds just off the surface increased the potential for damaging winds and isolated tornadoes along a line of showers just ahead of the front.

The tornado touched down one tenth of a mile southeast of the intersection of Sweet Potato Ridge Road and Brookville Phillipsburg Road. The garage door of a residence there was blown in, leading to the removal of the roof and two walls of the garage. The roof was uplifted, flipped, and dropped in the yard immediately to the east. Several trees were also snapped in the yard immediately east of the garage. One of these trees was approximately 18 inches in diameter. The next damage location was approximately two tenths of a mile east of the intersection of Sweet Potato Ridge Road and Brookville Phillipsburg Road. A roof was partially removed from a residence on the south side of Sweet Potato Ridge Road, and blown slightly to the left of the direction of storm motion into a residence on the north side of the road. A combination of the debris and winds blew in two windows on a residence on the north side of Sweet Potato Ridge Road. Yard furniture was also lifted and carried over a tenth of a mile to the north-northeast. The tornado then removed a large portion of a barn roof on the west side of Pansing Road and carried it to the northwest, perpendicular to the direction of storm motion. Other roof debris was lifted and carried across to the east side of Pansing Road. The final damage that was observed before the tornado lifted was on Phillipsburg Union Road approximately one half mile east of the intersection with Pansing Road. This was another instance where debris from a barn was carried a short distance to the northwest of the storm motion. This debris included a portion of the roof and wood siding. Several pine trees about 8 inches in diameter were also snapped, uplifted, and dropped pointing into the direction of the storm motion. All of the damage along the path exhibited convergent motion, along with the noted distances of debris being deposited to the northwest of the original source structures. The maximum estimated wind speed based on the damage surveyed was 85 miles per hour.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:46 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:01 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 02:20 UTC and running to 05:02 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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.

Dayton (DAY), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:52 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 2014 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

33 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.