EF1 tornado, Widowville to Hayesville, Ohio, November 5, 2017

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

November 5, 2017

Touchdown

5:29 PM EST (22:29 UTC)

Lifted

5:33 PM EST (22:33 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Ashland County

Touchdown point

40.785, -82.303

Lift-off point

40.790, -82.265

Record number

1711051629-01

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CLE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Trees uprooted to the southeast.
• Many trees stripped bare and snapped. Gravity wagon was lifted into the trees and a cow was thrown and broke its leg.

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

A cold front moved across the Ohio Valley and southern Great Lakes on the afternoon of Sunday, November 5th, 2017. Unseasonably warm and humid air was in place across the region ahead of the front. The cold front gradually progressed across the Ohio Valley and thunderstorms initiated and swept east ahead of the front. The storms formed in a very strong wind field and allowed the storms to move very rapidly east at speeds of 60 to 80 mph. A large macroburst formed and swept east just south of Cleveland and produced winds in excess of 100 mph. The most concentrated damage stretched from southern Lorain County across Cuyahoga County and into northern Summit, northern Portage and southern Geauga Counties. A 105 mph thunderstorm wind gust was measured at Aurora in Portage County. In addition to the damaging winds, at least 13 tornados were reported. Three of the tornadoes reached EF2 intensity with eight EF1 tornadoes and two EF0 tornadoes. Tens of thousands of trees were downed by these storms and widespread power outages occurred. In the Cleveland area alone, over 100,000 electric customers lost power. It took several days for power to be completely restored. Dozens of homes, buildings and barns were damaged or destroyed by the tornadoes.

An EF0 tornado touched down in rural Ashland County near the intersection of U.S. Route 30 and State Route 511. Some hardwood trees at that location were either toppled or damage. The tornado then intensified to EF1 strength as it continued east northeast across open farmland. A farm wagon was tossed and destroyed by the tornado and a cow was thrown and sustained a broken leg. The tornado heavily damaged a home along State Route 60 about a third of a mile north of U.S. 30. The house lost about half of its roof and had a brick chimney toppled. Some windows were blown out and the house lost siding on all four sides. An adjacent car port was leveled and a large overhead door in a nearby garage was blown in. The 90 year old occupant of the house was not injured. After striking the house, the tornado weakened and eventually lifted just east of State Route 60. The damage path from this tornado was just over two miles in length.

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

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:10 UTC and running to 00:00 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.

Mansfield (MFD), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 78 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:29 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.