Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2017

EF0 tornado, Chester, Ohio, July 10, 2017

This EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Meigs County on July 10, 2017, touching down at 7:35 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $15,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
July 10, 2017
Touchdown
7:35 PM EDT (23:35 UTC)
Lifted
7:36 PM EDT (23:36 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.4 miles (0.7 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$15,000
County
Meigs County
Touchdown point
39.077, -81.945
Lift-off point
39.071, -81.942
Record number
1707101735-01

The damage survey

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS RLX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 74 mph.

  • Tin shed lifted and blown over the hill Corn blown down in NW direction.
  • Corn blown in NW direction.
  • tree trunk snapped. top facing west.
  • Base rotted. but facing SE

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

What the Weather Service recorded

Showers and thunderstorms formed along a warm front lifting through the middle Ohio River Valley on the 10th. A turn in the low level winds along the front lead to rotating thunderstorms which produced large hail, heavy rain, damaging winds and one weak tornado.

The NWS Survey team found damage consistent with an EF-0 tornado. The tornado touched down along Pomeroy Pike just to the southwest of Chester. One small tin shed was lifted from its foundation and destroyed. A tree fell onto a home causing slight damage. In addition, several trees were uprooted, and numerous tree limbs were snapped in the same area. Near the end of the path, along Lakewood Road, several additional trees were knocked down.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:49 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningRLX
22:10 UTC22:45 UTCTornado WarningRLX
22:29 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningRLX
23:30 UTC00:17 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningRLX
23:39 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningRLX

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 19:54 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

11.6 hours before the tornado, 165 km from the path. July 10, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2017-07-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 235 joules per kilogram, CIN -85, lifted condensation level 985 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2017-07-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 294 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
235 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-85 J/kg
Surface CAPE
285 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
985 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
294 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
291 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 165 km from the path. July 11, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2017-07-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 299 joules per kilogram, CIN -35, lifted condensation level 1494 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2017-07-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 73 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
299 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-35 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1455 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1494 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
192 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.6
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Point Pleasant (3I2), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:35 UTC85.571.2210° 11 kt141014.2
21:55 UTC87.871.8200° 10 kt151014.2
22:15 UTC8670.7210° 9 kt171014.2
22:35 UTC86.270.5220° 9 kt1014.6
22:55 UTC85.371220° 3 kt151014.9
23:15 UTC85.572200° 4 kt1014.9
23:35 UTC8572.50° 0 kt1015.2
23:55 UTC82.87310° 6 kt1015.6
00:15 UTC76.667.550° 5 kt1015.6
00:35 UTC76.867.390° 4 kt1015.6
00:55 UTC7667.60° 0 kt1015.6
01:15 UTC74.367.50° 0 kt1015.6

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

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:33 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:13 UTCTSTM WND DMGHemlockPerry, OHMULTIPLE TREES FALLEN OR UPROOTED IN SOUTHERN PERRY CO.... VICINITY OF HEMLOCK IN PARTICULAR. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR.
21:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGMurray CityHocking, OHNUMEROUS TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN IN MURRAY CITY. NO POWER OR COMMUNICATIONS. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
21:40 UTCHAIL 14 Sw GlousterAthens, OHCOCORAHS REPORT OF ONE INCH HAIL THAT LASTER FOR FIVE MINUTES.
21:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 W TrimbleAthens, OHMULTIPLE HOMES WITH ROOF DAMAGE.
22:15 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Sse Stroud Run StateAthens, OHNWS SURVEY TEAM NOTED SEVERAL TREES DOWN ALONG SAND RIDGE ROAD... MILL SCHOOL ROAD... AND FOSSIL ROCK ROAD. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR
22:39 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Ene CoolvilleWashington, OHMULTIPLE TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN IN LITTLE HOCKING REPORTED VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
22:46 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Se MariettaWashington, OHSEVERAL TREES UPROOTED IN RENO AREA VIA SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
23:35 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sw ChesterMeigs, OHAN OUT BUILDING WAS RIPPED OFF ITS FOUNDATION AND TOSSED AND SEVERAL TREES WERE SNAPPED

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 10, 2017

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 1012:00 PM MDTUnratedGarfield, UT0.11
July 103:57 PM EDTEF0Beaver, PA3.275$30,000
July 105:45 PM CDTEF0Peoria, IL1.650
July 107:53 PM EDTEF1Cass, IN3.8200
July 107:58 PM EDTEF1Miami, IN3.0100
July 108:14 PM EDTEF0Mercer, OH6.3150$10,000

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.