EF1 tornado, Valley City to Hinckley, Ohio, July 8, 2014

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

July 8, 2014

Touchdown

1:43 PM EDT (17:43 UTC)

Lifted

1:47 PM EDT (17:47 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.5 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Medina County

Touchdown point

41.270, -81.761

Lift-off point

41.277, -81.732

Record number

1407081143-01

19 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CLE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 94 mph.

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

Three tornadoes and a handful of severe thunderstorms occurred on July 8th ahead of a cold front moving across the area. A National Weather Service survey team rated all three tornadoes as an EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. The first tornado touched down at 133 pm EDT as an EF0 in extreme east central Lorain County near the intersection of Island Road and Route 303. The tornado quickly became an EF1 in Medina County and tracked around 7 miles before lifting up at 140 pm EDT near the intersection of Grafton and Marks Roads. Along the 7.3 mile path of the tornado, much of the damage was to trees that were knocked down or uprooted. Some shingle and mainly minor structure damage also occurred. A barn on Station Road was moderately damaged. The max path width was 200 yards and the maximum estimated speed was 94 mph. The tornado was on the ground approximately 7 minutes. Scattered downed trees and limbs observed east of this location was determined to be a result of straight line winds.||The second tornado was rated EF1 and touched down at 143 pm EDT just southwest of the intersection of Ridge Road and Boston Road in Hinckley causing minor damage to a home. It then moved across the water treatment plant and lifted at 147 pm EDT at the eastern edge of the Valleaire Golf Course off Boston Road. Tree damage occurred at the golf course. The tornado tracked approximately 1. 6 miles with a max path width of 150 yards.||The third tornado was rated EF1 and touched down at 215 pm EDT near the Society of Saint Paul on West Akron-Canfield Road and skipped east northeast through Canfield Township and the city of Canfield and finally lifted at 218 pm EDT near South Raccoon Road in the northeast corner of Canfield Township. About 10 homes were damaged with trees on several houses and a couple of garages were heavily damaged. The storm tracked for just over 5 miles with maximum width of 200 yards and estimated wind speeds of 90 mph.

The tornado started as an EF0 in extreme eastern central Lorain County near the intersection of Island Road and Route 303. The tornado quickly became an EF1 in Medina County and tracked around 7 miles before lifting up near the intersection of Grafton and Marks Roads. Along the 7.3 mile path of the tornado, much of the damage was to trees that were knocked down or uprooted. Some shingle and mainly minor structure damage also occurred. A barn on Station Road was moderately damaged. The max path width was 200 yards and the maximum estimated speed was 94 mph. The tornado was on the ground approximately 7 minutes. Scattered downed trees and limbs observed east of this location was determined to be a result of straight line winds.

A National Weather Service Storm Survey confirmed an EF1 tornado touched down just southwest of the intersection of Ridge Road and Boston Road in Hinckley causing minor damage to a home. It then moved across the water treatment plant and lifted at the eastern edge of the Valleaire Golf Course off Boston Road. Tree damage occurred at the golf course. The tornado tracked approximately 1. 6 miles with a max path width of 150 yards.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS CLE issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:33 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:06 UTC and running to 20:02 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 16:29 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 Cleveland radar (KCLE), 18 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:44 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

13 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.