EF0 tornado, Xenia Greene Co Arpt to Patterson Afb, Ohio, May 24, 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

May 24, 2017

Touchdown

9:06 PM EDT (01:06 UTC)

Lifted

9:12 PM EDT (01:12 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.6 km)

Path width

90 yards (82 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2,000

County

Greene County

Touchdown point

39.831, -84.021

Lift-off point

39.850, -84.039

Record number

1705241906-01

55 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 109 mph.

• HVAC units lifted from roof also
• canopy debris tossed into business to north, breaking windows. construction tubing carried into business showroom
• broken glass was from flying debris. light pole also snapped and pushed westward
• siding damage due to roof debris from business to south

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

A slow moving low pressure system resulted in thunderstorm development through the late afternoon. The thunderstorms continued into the evening hours, producing locally heavy rainfall and isolated tornadoes.

The tornado first touched down along Colorado Drive where a small ornamental tree was uprooted. Additional small limb damage also occurred in this area. The tornado traveled north, where public video was provided of a small tornado crossing U.S. Route 35, just north of the Greene County Airport. The video showed the tornado lifting upward shortly after crossing north of Route 35, but damage had been reported at the intersection of Trebein and Dayton-Xenia Roads. Slightly farther north, some power line damage occurred in the 900 block of Trebein Road.

The tornado first touched down about a mile north of Fairborn in Greene County where some minor tree damage occurred in Fairborn Park. The tornado passed over the northern end of Wright Patterson Air Force Base with some additional minor tree damage located along Osborn Road in extreme northwest Greene County. The tornado then moved into extreme southeast Clark County, about 2.1 miles north-northeast of Wright Patterson Air Force Base, before ending about 1.9 miles southwest of Crystal Lakes at 2016EST.

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

25 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:41 UTC, 25 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:51 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.

Wright Paterson (FFO), 2 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:10 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

26 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.