Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2016
EF0 tornado, Delaware to Troyton, Ohio, August 20, 2016
From Delaware to Troyton, this EF0 tornado ran 3.3 miles across Delaware County on August 20, 2016, touching down at 6:37 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- August 20, 2016
- Touchdown
- 6:37 PM EDT (22:37 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:49 PM EDT (22:49 UTC)
- On the ground
- 12 minutes
- Path length
- 3.3 miles (5.3 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $20,000
- County
- Delaware County
- Touchdown point
- 40.344, -83.089
- Lift-off point
- 40.385, -83.058
- Record number
- 1608201637-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A line of thunderstorms which developed ahead of a pre-frontal trough of low pressure, produced isolated tornadoes.
A weak tornado initially touched down just south of the Buckeye|Valley Middle School. The damage near the school was limited to|one tree with a limb down. The track continued north-northeast|into a residential area. In this residential area several 2 to 4|inch limbs were snapped and a few shallow-rooted trees were|uprooted. Roof damage was observed due to a fallen tree on Coover|Road and a barn had part of the roof cave in on its east side.||The tornado lifted until it crossed US-23 just west of Delaware|Dam. A small cluster of trees were twisted on the west side of the|highway.||The next location is Delaware State Park where the tornado was on|the ground for a few minutes. At Delaware State Park, a few|partially rotten large limbs were downed and numerous 2 to 3 inch|limbs were also downed. Also, several shallow rooted trees were|uprooted. A medium-sized dumpster near the marina was tipped and|moved about 20 feet. Three boats at the marina sustained minor|awning damage. A few 2 to 3 inch tree limbs around the marina were|snapped. Across the river from the marina, a snapped limb marked|the end of the tornado track.
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.
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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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
10.6 hours before the tornado, 121 km from the path. August 20, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 293 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -21 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 90 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 703 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 25 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 12 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 33 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z
1.4 hours after it, 121 km from the path. August 21, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 264 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -43 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1086 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 922 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 122 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 122 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 1.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.5 K/km
The surface observations
Delaware (DLZ), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:55 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 170° 7 kt | 1007.8 | ||
| 21:14 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 170° 8 kt | 15 | 1007.5 | |
| 21:34 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 160° 6 kt | 1007.5 | ||
| 21:55 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 160° 8 kt | 1007.1 | ||
| 22:14 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 160° 5 kt | 1007.1 | RA | |
| 22:34 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 190° 5 kt | 1007.1 | ||
| 22:55 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 190° 5 kt | 1007.1 | ||
| 23:14 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 170° 5 kt | 1007.1 | ||
| 23:34 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 190° 5 kt | 1007.1 | ||
| 23:55 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 180° 10 kt | 1007.5 | ||
| 00:14 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 190° 7 kt | 15 | 1007.5 | -RA |
| 00:34 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 190° 7 kt | 1007.5 | -DZ |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:37 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:37 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 3 N Delaware | Delaware, OH | DAMAGE SURVEY CONFIRMED EF0 WITH AN INTERMITTENT PATH LENGTH OF 3.3 MILES AND A MAXIMUM WIDTH OF 100 YARDS. |
| 22:37 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 3 N Delaware | Delaware, OH | DAMAGE SURVEY CONFIRMED EF0 WITH AN INTERMITTENT PATH LENGTH OF 3.3 MILES AND A MAXIUMUM WIDTH OF 100 YARDS. |
| 22:38 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 5 W Ashley | Delaware, OH | MULTIPLE REPORTS OF FUNNEL CLOUDS NEAR DELAWARE LAKE OHIO. |
| 22:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 N Delaware | Delaware, OH | ESTIMATED 2 FT DIAMETER TREE UPROOTED AT DELAWARE STATE PARK. PHOTO VERIFIED. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR. |
| 22:59 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 N Delaware | Delaware, OH | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN. NO STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO HOMES. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 20, 2016
12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 20 | 10:03 AM CDT | EF0 | Kewaunee, WI | 0.7 | 125 | $25,000 | ||
| August 20 | 1:13 PM EDT | EF1 | Allegan, MI | 10.6 | 150 | $2.0 million | ||
| August 20 | 1:42 PM EDT | EF1 | Allegan, MI | 12.8 | 100 | $1.5 million | ||
| August 20 | 2:18 PM EDT | EF1 | Ottawa, MI | 4.1 | 100 | $500,000 | ||
| August 20 | 2:34 PM EDT | EF0 | Kent, MI | 4.3 | 75 | $500,000 | ||
| August 20 | 2:50 PM EDT | EF0 | Kent, MI | 0.9 | 50 | $25,000 | ||
| August 20 | 2:53 PM EDT | EF0 | Kosciusko, IN | 1.6 | 10 | |||
| August 20 | 3:10 PM EDT | EF1 | Ionia, MI | 7.8 | 100 | $750,000 | ||
| August 20 | 3:19 PM EDT | EF0 | Elkhart, IN | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| August 20 | 5:42 PM EDT | EF0 | Allen, IN | 2.4 | 70 | |||
| August 20 | 6:15 PM EDT | EF0 | Darke, OH | 4.7 | 50 | $11,000 | ||
| August 20 | 6:30 PM CDT | EF0 | Barren, KY | 1.6 | 30 | $50,000 |
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.