Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2015

EF0 tornado, Bartlett, Ohio, June 20, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Washington County on June 20, 2015, touching down at 2:12 PM EDT and reaching 77 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $15,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 20, 2015
Touchdown
2:12 PM EDT (18:12 UTC)
Lifted
2:13 PM EDT (18:13 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
77 yards (70 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$15,000
County
Washington County
Touchdown point
39.407, -81.829
Lift-off point
39.409, -81.828
Record number
1506201212-01

The damage survey

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

  • V-hull boat thrown in tree and crumpled.
  • Distinct flattening of tall grass with antecedent swirls.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

The remnants of what was Tropical Storm Bill moved east, through northern Kentucky during the morning hours, reaching near Portsmouth during the mid afternoon hours.||Showers were more persistent from northern Vinton County and the Hocking River Valley on north. Lines of thunderstorms formed ahead of the low pressure center during the early afternoon and moved north. One brief tornado was confirmed in Washington County on the mesoscale comma head of one short convective line.||Rain totals of 1.5 to 2.5 were common over grounds that had become wet during the past week. Minor flash flooding occurred.

A brief EF0 tornado occurred off of Tullis Road, southwest of Bartlett. The estimated strongest wind gust was around 85 mph.||Several trees were uprooted and numerous large branches were snapped. One house and an outbuilding were damaged, mainly to the roof and siding. Also, a small aluminum boat was thrown from the edge of the pond, 140 yards and wrapped around a tree.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:00 UTC02:30 UTCFlash Flood WatchRLX
20:15 UTC02:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningRLX

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:34 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), 12:00Z

6.2 hours before the tornado, 169 km from the path. June 20, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2015-06-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 76 joules per kilogram, CIN -44, lifted condensation level 692 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2015-06-20The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 147 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
76 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-44 J/kg
Surface CAPE
122 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
692 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
147 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
123 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

5.8 hours after it, 169 km from the path. June 21, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2015-06-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 104 joules per kilogram, CIN -228, lifted condensation level 818 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2015-06-21The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 96 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
104 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-228 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1189 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
818 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
96 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
165 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Parkersburg (PKB), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:53 UTC797090° 7 kt1011.5
17:53 UTC8271110° 8 kt1009.8
18:23 UTC8170 1010.5VCTS
18:30 UTC220° 14 kt+TSRA
18:33 UTC7068220° 9 kt1012.2+TSRA BR
18:53 UTC7068250° 3 kt1012.2-TSRA BR
19:04 UTC7068220° 3 kt1010.5-TSRA
19:13 UTC7068210° 3 kt1010.5-RA BR
19:41 UTC716990° 6 kt1009.8-RA
19:53 UTC716990° 4 kt1009.8

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

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 122 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:09 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
17:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGShawneePerry, OHTREES DOWN...ROOF DAMAGE...AND CHIMNEY DAMAGE.
18:15 UTCTORNADO1 Sw BartlettWashington, OHEF0 TORNADO CONFIRMED. MAX WIND SPEEDS 85 MPH. PATH LENGTH 218 YARDS AND PATH WIDTH 77 YARDS.
18:25 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sw BartlettWashington, OHREPORTED DAMAGE TO A HOME ON TULLIS RD NEAR WAYNE NATIONAL FOREST. PER WESLEY OHIO FIRE CHIEF. TIME EST FROM RADAR
19:04 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Se CarlisleNoble, OHTHREE TREES DOWN
19:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sw BartlettWashington, OHREPORTED DAMAGE TO A HOME ON TULLIS ROAD NEAR WAYNE NATIONAL FOREST PER THE WESLEY OH FIRE CHIEF.
21:00 UTCFLOOD1 Ene McarthurVinton, OHCULVERT WASHED OUT AT INTERSECTION OF MORGAN ROAD AND BARLEON ROAD.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 20, 2015

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 204:10 PM CDTEF0Towner, ND0.150
June 206:09 PM CDTEF1Monroe, IA3.6175$80,000
June 207:27 PM EDTEF0Prince William, VA2.1100$50,000
June 207:39 PM EDTEF0Frederick, MD1.575$5,000
June 207:01 PM CDTEF1Washington, IA1.475$50,000
June 207:02 PM CDTEF0Griggs, ND1.550
June 208:12 PM EDTEF0Caroline, VA1.350$25,000
June 207:18 PM CDTEF1Henry, IA3.5752$100,000
June 207:32 PM CDTEF1Des Moines, IA2.950$300,000
June 207:34 PM CDTEF1Lee, IA4.450

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.