EF1 tornado, Bryon to Yellow Spgs, Ohio, April 3, 2018

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

April 3, 2018

Touchdown

4:45 PM EDT (20:45 UTC)

Lifted

4:50 PM EDT (20:50 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

8.8 miles (14.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Greene County

Touchdown point

39.747, -83.971

Lift-off point

39.794, -83.823

Record number

1804031445-01

85 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 107 mph.

• silo to nw of damaged barn
• Much of roof gone, with first and second floor wall buckling on interior of home.
• Windows broken and much of roof removed
• Interior wall buckled on first and second level

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

Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes developed ahead of a strong cold front. Between one to three inches of rain fell across the region.

The tornado first touched down in the 1000 block of Ludlow Road in Beavercreek Township. One barn on the property had roof damage, while the other barn had wall damage. In addition, a silo collapsed. Numerous hardwood and softwood trees were damaged and there was roof and chimney damage to the home. This damage was consistent with low end EF1/high end EF0 damage, with wind estimated at 85 to 90 mph.||Several properties further east along Ludlow Road sustained damage. The most significant being in the 800 block, where a home sustained more than 30 percent of its roof torn off, multiple broken windows, and structural damage to both the exterior and interior walls of the home. Damage to the home was consistent with wind speeds of 90 to 95 mph, EF1 category. Additional significant barn and tree damage occurred on the property.||Further east on Ludlow Road, in the 700 to 500 block, several homes sustained roof damage, with significant damage to barns. Such damage was consistent with high end EF0 damage of 75 to 80 mph.||The tornado continued eastward in the 2400 North Block of U.S. 68. A home received minor siding and roof damage as well as a collapsed chimney, with a fence also destroyed. A large camper was rolled over and the roof was lifted off a brick outbuilding. Damage to this property was consistent with EF1 strength of near 90 mph.||Further east along Clifton Road, structural damage occurred to barns along with roof and porch damage to homes in the 700 and 800 block of Clifton Road. Damage in this area was consistent with EF0 damage of about 75 mph.||Damage became more significant further northeast along Clifton Road, where substantial damage occurred to several barns, along with snapped softwood and hardwood trees. In addition, significant roof and siding damage was present on the residences of two homes in the 2400 block of Clifton Road. Damage here was consistent with low end EF1 between 86 and 90 mph. A sheep farm in this area did experience the loss of five sheep.||The northern most extent of confirmed tornado damage was along State Route 72 and Clifton Road. While there was widespread tree and roof damage along Wilberforce-Clifton Road and State Route 72 south of Clifton, this damage was all in the same direction to the north-northeast, without substantial evidence of back-splatter as associated with rotation. While the wind damage was significant in this area, estimated to be as high as 80 mph, this damage was more consistent with straight line wind damage.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:42 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:16 UTC and running to 23:33 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:33 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), 39 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:46 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 2018 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.