Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2017

EF1 tornado, Clover, Ohio, March 26, 2017

This EF1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Clermont County on March 26, 2017, touching down at 2:24 PM EDT and reaching 70 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
March 26, 2017
Touchdown
2:24 PM EDT (18:24 UTC)
Lifted
2:25 PM EDT (18:25 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
70 yards (64 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$30,000
County
Clermont County
Touchdown point
39.014, -84.061
Lift-off point
39.017, -84.057
Record number
1703261224-01

The damage survey

2 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 90 mph.

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

An upper level low pressure system produced showers with embedded thunderstorms during the afternoon and early evening hours.

A weak tornado briefly touched down just in front of a tree line south of Concord Hennings Mill Road. Initial damage from the tornado consisted of an overturned small barn with an overturned camper. The tornado then headed northeast and caused structural damage to a residence on Concord Hennings Mill Road. The garage door walls were collapsed inwards with the roof blown off and debris scattered into a field north of Concord Hennings Mill Road. The tornado then lifted in a field north of Concord Hennings Mill Road.

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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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

6.4 hours before the tornado, 51 km from the path. March 26, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2017-03-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 36 joules per kilogram, CIN -62, lifted condensation level 732 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2017-03-26The 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 -9 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
36 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-62 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
732 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-9 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

5.6 hours after it, 51 km from the path. March 27, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2017-03-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 6 joules per kilogram, CIN -184, lifted condensation level 808 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2017-03-27The 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 9 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-184 J/kg
Surface CAPE
310 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
808 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
9 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-36 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Batavia (I69), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:36 UTC56.756.70° 0 kt1016.3RA
16:56 UTC57.257.20° 0 kt1015.9-RA
17:16 UTC57.757.790° 3 kt1015.6
17:36 UTC58580° 0 kt1015.6
17:56 UTC58.358.3160° 4 kt1015.2-RA
18:16 UTC60.360.3180° 5 kt1014.9
18:36 UTC6262170° 3 kt1014.6
18:56 UTC62.860220° 5 kt1013.9
19:16 UTC63.555.8210° 7 kt1013.9
19:36 UTC65.855.2200° 7 kt1013.5
19:56 UTC66.654.5210° 7 kt141013.2
20:16 UTC6752.5220° 8 kt171013.2

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

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:23 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 S WilliamsburgClermont, OHROOF BLOWN OFF HOUSE, GARAGE DESTROYED, CAMPER OVERTURNED, BOAT TURNED SIDEWAYS.
18:24 UTCTORNADO 12 Ssw WilliamsburgClermont, OHNWS STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED A TORNADO NEAR WILLIAMSBURG IN CLERMONT COUNTY. DAMAGE OCCURRED AT PROPERTIES ON CONCORD HENNINGS MILL ROAD.

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 March 26, 2017

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 262:00 PM CDTEF0, PR0.4100
March 267:14 PM CDTEF0Pontotoc, OK4.050$1,000
March 267:27 PM CDTEF0Pontotoc, OK0.330

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.