EF0 tornado, Potsdam, Ohio, March 14, 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

March 14, 2016

Touchdown

2:30 PM EDT (18:30 UTC)

Lifted

2:32 PM EDT (18:32 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.1 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Miami County

Touchdown point

39.978, -84.427

Lift-off point

39.988, -84.427

Record number

1603141230-01

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 at a property on Hall Road. A few shingles were damaged on the house and one tree had a large limb broken off. A more concentrated area of damage occurred along and east of Stauffer Road, just north of the intersection with Coppock Road. Minor tree damage was observed at several properties on Stauffer Road, with a few healthy trees downed. A pine tree near the north end of the damage path was blown toward the southeast. One home had its sheet metal roof almost completely peeled off and deposited to the west of the home. Minor shingle damage occurred to a nearby garage. There was also significant scattering of minor debris in this location, including small limbs and a play structure. A shed located behind one of the residences was also destroyed with its debris scattered northwest into an adjacent field.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:16 UTC, 14 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.

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:29 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.