EF1 tornado, Pitsburg to Arcanum, Ohio, March 14, 2016

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

March 14, 2016

Touchdown

2:26 PM EDT (18:26 UTC)

Lifted

2:32 PM EDT (18:32 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.6 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Darke County

Touchdown point

39.962, -84.544

Lift-off point

39.994, -84.540

Record number

1603141226-01

41 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Small farm outbuilding with cinderblock base was overturned with partial collapse of 4' tall cinderblock base. Note field debris on ground in direction of travel of tornado.
• small farm shed with cinderblock base destroyed with partial collapse of cinderblock wall
• Roof lifted from late 19th century farmhouse. Upper level ceiling partially lifted.
• Separation of ceiling from upper walls on upper level due to roof being torn off

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

A low pressure system moving through the Ohio River Valley produced showers and scattered thunderstorms during the early to mid afternoon hours. Several weak tornadoes developed across the Miami Valley.

The first evidence of damage occurred north of Stocker Road just east of the intersection with Schnorf-Jones Road. A few trees were downed in this location with some light debris noted along the tree line about 350 feet north of Stocker Road.||Additional damage was noted at a residence on the northeast corner of the intersection of Oakes Road and Schnorf-Jones Road. A stone chimney on the house was heavily damaged. A few panels of metal roofing on the house were completely removed. A metal barn roof at this location was also partially peeled up to the west.||Light debris from the above location was spread about a quarter mile to the north with some evidence of very minor damage at an adjacent property just south of a line of trees. Beyond this line of trees, which had some depositing of light debris, there was no further damage observed.

Damage was first observed along Grubbs-Rex Road. A large garage had one of its doors partially pushed inward. The most significant damage occurred at a property located south of Dull Road. A horse stable at the southern end of the property was almost completely destroyed. The southernmost addition to this stable suffered from complete collapse of external walls with some of the wooden anchor posts completely ripped from the ground. Minor damage to walls, windows and roof ornamentation was also noticed on two other outbuildings at this location. A brick house was generally undamaged, aside from some isolated removal of shingles. Throughout this area, tree damage was significant. Large limbs were spread almost everywhere with several trees downed and others snapped off above ground level. Debris from the stable was found deposited in trees in several other places on the property.||Debris from the Dull Road location, including large pieces of sheet metal, was spread for long distances to the north of the property. A significant amount of this debris was deposited between the damage area and Dull Road. Very minor roof damage was also observed on a barn located just north of Dull Road.||Numerous pieces of debris were found between Dull Road and east South Street (State Route 49). A few pieces were even found just north of east South Street. A lack of trees along this segment of the path made it difficult to determine the exact end point of the tornado. It is estimated that the tornado lifted in the vicinity of east South Street.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:16 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:45 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 18:01 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.

Versailles (VES), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:24 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

4 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.