EF0 tornado, Dupont to Pleasant Bend, Ohio, August 24, 2016

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

August 24, 2016

Touchdown

7:48 PM EDT (23:48 UTC)

Lifted

7:50 PM EDT (23:50 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

15 yards (14 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Putnam and Henry counties

Touchdown point

41.160, -84.188

Lift-off point

41.168, -84.181

Record number

1608241748-01

47 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DTX and NWS IWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.

• Spoke to resident at 1864 CR 197. His son saw it towards 66 and he heard of damage on Stone Rd and in DuPont
• Address was 10371. Male witness said he saw the funnel trying to lower several times before it went north/northeast for several miles. Didn't hear of any damage/see any near this point.
• Saw funnel go across the field to the east - but no touch down. Resident stated that she heard it touched down in Continental.
• Resident said they saw the funnel go overhead and head north. Heard of damage in a park in DuPont. Husband saw funnel drop beyond trees and saw some small leafs and debris lofted-but couldn't see it down on ground.

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

A unique combination of extreme low level moisture and a passing upper level disturbance provided the trigger for severe storms. Even though the clouds remained in place for most of the day and it did not get very warm, there was just enough instability to allow storms to develop. There was also a high degree of shear in the lowest levels of the atmosphere, which allowed multiple tornadoes to form. No other forms of severe weather occurred during the event.

Numerous interviews with residents southeast of Dupont, Ohio described the rotating wall cloud with funnel clouds lowering as the storm passed over. This tornado formed just south of the Auglaize River in the middle of a corn field. Tree damage was noted in the tree line on the south side of the river. Residents in Dupont reported the tornado lifted water from the river before intensifying and accelerating to the north. The tornado continued through the middle of Dupont and exited the north side of the town moving north-northeast into a field of beans before dissipating north of town. Minor damage was noted to siding, roofs, trees and crops. Damage was consistent with maximum winds of 65 MPH.

A weak tornado was observed by local fire officials in a field northeast of the intersection of County Roads 17 and A-16 in Putnam county. The tornado moved into Henry county.

A weak tornado was observed by local fire officials moving out of Putnam county in a field into Henry county, where it quickly dissipated.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS IWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:28 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:39 UTC and running to 01:59 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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 Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 128 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:47 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 2016 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.