EF0 tornado, Enon to Rock Way, Ohio, April 5, 2017

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

April 5, 2017

Touchdown

6:58 PM EDT (22:58 UTC)

Lifted

6:59 PM EDT (22:59 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Clark County

Touchdown point

39.936, -83.914

Lift-off point

39.936, -83.912

Record number

1704051658-01

22 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 84 mph.

• roof section tossed about 20 yards down stream
• roof debris carried into field downstream of home
• Debris from back deck carried to front of house. Front of home faces east, with damage to front porch on the downwind facing side.
• garage roof shingles lifted and thrown against against North facing side of house

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

Showers and thunderstorms developed ahead of a strengthening surface low which moved from the Middle Mississippi Valley into Northwest Ohio.

The first evidence of damage occurred to a home and farm |buildings along Dayton-Springfield Road southwest of Enon. ||While there were numerous homes in the area which sustained tree |damage and lightweight debris damage, the vast majority of this |damage was from straight line winds estimated at 70 mph. The wind |damage was southwest to northeast with no evidence of tornadic |winds making direct contact with the ground nor debris found on |downwind sides of buildings.||There was embedded damage to a farm home and barns where large|sections of roofing material were peeled off and lofted, causing|damage to the downwind home. There was additional roof damage to|the home and 2 additional farm buildings. The southward facing|garage door to the home was blown inward. Two combines located in|one of the outbuildings were pushed downwind, with the outbuilding|itself collapsed. ||Where there was evidence of tornado damage was in the |downwind/northeast facing wall of the home and one of the barns, |where debris splatter was observed. Because of heavy rain after |the passage of the storm, direct ground damage indicative of a |tornado in contact with the ground was inconclusive.

Widespread wind damage was observed west of Springfield in the|Tecumseh Trails Subdivision and along North Tecumseh Road north|of New Carlisle Pike. Several homes in the Tecumseh Trails|subdivision sustained roof damage indicative of 75 to 80 mph |winds. However, all of the debris was scattered in a northerly to |northeasterly direction, with no ground based evidence of a |tornado apparent. There was no evidence of light mud nor debris |splatter in the downwind facing side of the homes. However, the |wind damage was significant, resulting in a large section of roof |removed from one home, with other homes in the area sustaining |smaller sections of roof damage. There was additional tree damage|along New Carlisle Pike, including damage to a fence caused by |damaged trees. ||Where tornado damage was evident was further east along North |Tecumseh Road. Roof and siding damage was sustained by several |homes. One home had clear debris splatter on the north facing side|of the home, as well as splatter and damage on an eastward facing|porch. This strongly suggests winds traveling in an opposite |direction of the north to northeastward moving storm and provides |evidence of tornadic damage. ||The storm traveling through this area of Clark County had|significant winds producing widespread tree and roof damage.|Nearly all of the damage surveyed was pretty clearly in a|northerly to northeasterly direction, indicating strong straight|line wind damage. Damage caused by the brief tornado touchdown |along North Tecumseh Road was similar in magnitude to the |strongest straight line wind damage nearby. ||Through witness accounts, it is estimated that the tornado was on|the ground a very brief time, likely less than 1 minute.

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

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

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:18 UTC and running to 01:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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 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), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:57 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 2017 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

23 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.