EF0 tornado, Samantha to New Petersburg, Ohio, March 1, 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

March 1, 2017

Touchdown

2:40 AM EST (07:40 UTC)

Lifted

2:45 AM EST (07:45 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.5 miles (7.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Highland County

Touchdown point

39.275, -83.467

Lift-off point

39.293, -83.385

Record number

1703010140-01

An unseasonably warm and moist air mass was in place across the region during the morning hours of March 1st. Showers and thunderstorms developed across the Ohio Valley during the early morning hours as a strong low pressure system lifted northeast into the Great Lakes region. These storms produced heavy rain, large hail and several tornadoes. A squall line then moved through the region during the mid morning hours ahead of an approaching cold front. These storms resulted in damaging winds and additional heavy rain.

Damage was first observed at a farm residence on the north side of Larkin Road, where one tree was downed and a barn was destroyed. Northeast of there, some minor tree damage was seen on State Route 72 and along tree lines in adjacent fields.||Structural damage occurred at a property on US Route 62 near the intersection with Old US 62, with several outbuildings destroyed or heavily damaged. The house at this location had minor damage, mainly to roofing materials, with shingles removed on multiple sides. One large evergreen tree was uprooted and other trees were snapped. At another property slightly northeast on US Route 62, a garage was destroyed and numerous trees behind the garage were snapped.||On Leaverton Road, a barn was partially collapsed. Two evergreen trees were also snapped and other tree damage was observed both at this location and across the field to the east. Slightly south of this location, also on Leaverton Road, several trees were downed along a low spot on the road and a fence was blown flat. Minor tree damage was also observed where the tornado crossed Smith Road and a garage door was blown in at a residence on State Route 771 with some trees snapped in the vicinity. A few trees were also damaged where the tornado crossed Monroe Road.||Tree damage was observed to be significant in several locations along Milner Road. A house on Milner Road sustained siding damage to both the east and west sides of the structure and tree damage was extensive at this property. An adjacent modular home had its roof removed and other outbuildings were damaged, with debris thrown northeast across an adjacent field. ||A hay barn on Bridges Road had most of its top half removed with the top also removed from another adjacent outbuilding. A home on Big Oak Road had part of its roof removed with debris observed in an adjacent field, likely a result of damage further to the west.||The last observed damage from this tornado occurred along Cope Road, where an outbuilding was mostly destroyed and a garage had part of its roof removed. Debris was thrown across Cope Road into a field to the east and southeast.

The tornado initially touched down near a residence north of the intersection of State Route 138 and Hardins Creek Road where a tree was downed. Further north along State Route 138, several trees were snapped. On Road T-319A, a small unanchored shed was completely removed from its slab, and a barn had part of its roof removed on both its northwest and southeast sides. In addition, some trees in this area were snapped.||The next observed damage was along State Route 753 about one mile north of the bridge over Rattlesnake Creek, where several trees were snapped. A slightly more concentrated area of tree damage was observed on Paint Creek Road just to the west of Paint Creek. Some tall trees were snapped and sheet metal debris from earlier damage was also found along Paint Creek Road.||To the west of Paint Creek in Ross County, no further damage was observed.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:34 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:48 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 07:40 UTC and running to 10:57 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 05:42 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), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:39 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

38 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.