Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2018
EF1 tornado, Hamersville to New Hope, Ohio, February 24, 2018
From Hamersville to New Hope, this EF1 tornado ran 4.9 miles across Brown County on February 24, 2018, touching down at 12:13 AM EST and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $65,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- February 24, 2018
- Touchdown
- 12:13 AM EST (05:13 UTC)
- Lifted
- 12:18 AM EST (05:18 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 4.9 miles (7.9 km)
- Path width
- 300 yards (274 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $65,000
- County
- Brown County
- Touchdown point
- 38.924, -83.964
- Lift-off point
- 38.970, -83.898
- Record number
- 1802242313-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Strong to severe thunderstorms, with very heavy rainfall, developed ahead of a cold front.
The tornado is first believed to have touched down near Lucas Road, about one mile northeast of Hamersville. More significant damage was observed near the intersection of White Oak Valley Road and Smokey Row Road, where a well-built home suffered partial roof loss and additional loss of roofing material. At another property on White Oak Valley Road, a trailer was flipped over. Tree damage was extensive along Smokey Row Road, especially near its intersection with Vinegar Hill Road.||On New Hope-McKinley Road, about a half mile east of U.S. 68, a mobile home had its roof completely removed. Debris from this roof was observed thrown about 500 yards downstream (northeast) of its origin. Additional tree damage was observed along New Hope-White Oak Station Road.||In addition to the tornadic damage described above, the National Weather Service storm survey observed non-tornadic damage across a much wider area. This area of damage extended about 13 miles in length, stretching from far southeastern Clermont County through north central Brown County. This straight-line wind damage affected areas near Feesburg and Hamersville, and was observed on both sides of the surveyed tornadic circulation. This damage consisted of additional tree and outbuilding damage, including the destruction of a few outbuildings.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
10 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:03 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:16 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01:36 UTC | 09:30 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | ILN |
| 05:03 UTC | 05:16 UTC | Tornado Warning | ILN |
| 05:36 UTC | 09:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | ILN |
| 09:18 UTC | 15:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | ILN |
| 09:33 UTC | 15:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | ILN |
| 15:47 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | ILN |
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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:42 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 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), 00:00Z
5.2 hours before the tornado, 55 km from the path. February 25, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -30310 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 572 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 62 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 227 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 266 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.3 K/km
Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z
6.8 hours after it, 55 km from the path. February 25, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -70152 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 9 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 844 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 86 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 43 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 207 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
The surface observations
Batavia (I69), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03:15 UTC | 53 | 51.8 | 0° 0 kt | 1008.1 | -RA | |
| 03:35 UTC | 53 | 51.8 | 100° 3 kt | 1007.8 | RA | |
| 03:55 UTC | 53.4 | 52.5 | 140° 4 kt | 1007.5 | RA | |
| 04:15 UTC | 57 | 56 | 170° 10 kt | 1007.1 | -RA | |
| 04:35 UTC | 59.5 | 58.3 | 180° 9 kt | 15 | 1006.1 | -RA |
| 04:56 UTC | 61.2 | 59 | 260° 13 kt | 21 | 1005.8 | RA |
| 05:15 UTC | 58.3 | 56.7 | 240° 18 kt | 26 | 1008.1 | RA |
| 05:35 UTC | 58 | 56.3 | 230° 12 kt | 22 | 1008.5 | RA |
| 05:55 UTC | 58 | 56.3 | 200° 9 kt | 1008.1 | RA | |
| 06:15 UTC | 58.3 | 56.5 | 180° 8 kt | 1007.8 | -RA | |
| 06:35 UTC | 58 | 56.3 | 200° 8 kt | 18 | 1007.8 | -RA |
| 06:55 UTC | 57.4 | 55.6 | 180° 10 kt | 16 | 1007.1 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:11 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.
What was reported nearby
Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:17 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 3 N Covington | Hamilton, OH | WATER FLOWING DOWN DORCHESTER AVENUE NEAR READING ROAD IN CINCINNATI. |
| 04:17 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Lebanon | Warren, OH | MULTIPLE ROADS CLOSED THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY DUE TO HIGH WATER, INCLUDING MORROW-MILGROVE RD, LOWER SPRINGBORO AND SOUTH PIONEER, AND CORWIN RD. |
| 05:03 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 4 Wsw Felicity | Clermont, OH | AN EF1 TORNADO WAS CONFIRMED IN SOUTHERN CLERMONT COUNTY. THE TORNADO RESULTED IN NUMEROUS UPROOTED AND SNAPPED TREES AS WELL AS DAMAGE TO SOME PRIVATE PROPERTIES. |
| 05:10 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 5 Wsw Lebanon | Warren, OH | COUPLE OF INCHES OF FLOWING WATER ON MASON-MONTGOMERY RD, JUST SOUTH OF HAMILTON ROAD. |
| 05:13 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 5 Nw Georgetown | Brown, OH | AN EF1 TORNADO WAS CONFIRMED IN WESTERN BROWN COUNTY. THE TORNADO RESULTED IN EXTENSIVE TREE DAMAGE AS WELL AS DAMAGE TO SEVERAL PRIVATE PROPERTIES. |
| 05:24 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Wsw Lynchburg | Clinton, OH | SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT OF 25-30 FT FLAG POLE BENT OVER, GARDEN WINDMILL KNOCKED DOWN, AND VAN WINDOW BROKEN FROM FLYING DEBRIS. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. CORRECTED FOR TIME. |
| 05:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Wnw Hillsboro | Highland, OH | TREE REPORTED DOWN NEAR ANDERSON RD. AND S.R. 124. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 05:41 UTC | TSTM WND GST 52 | Khoc Hillsboro Apt | Highland, OH | |
| 05:44 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 N Marshall | Highland, OH | ROOF DAMAGE TO A BARN ON OVERMAN RD. BETWEEN U.S. 50 AND PETERSBURG RD. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of February 24, 2018
29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 24 | 3:53 PM CST | EF2 | Robertson, TN to KY | 12.9 | 350 | 1 | 1 | $850,000 |
| February 24 | 5:11 PM CST | EF0 | Jackson, AR | 0.2 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| February 24 | 5:19 PM CST | EF1 | Barren, KY | 1.9 | 50 | $280,000 | ||
| February 24 | 5:20 PM CST | EF1 | Cross, AR | 3.2 | 75 | $500,000 | ||
| February 24 | 5:21 PM CST | EF2 | Clay, AR to MO | 41.9 | 150 | 1 | 5 | $2.5 million |
| February 24 | 6:06 PM CST | EF2 | Mississippi, AR | 9.9 | 100 | 1 | $1.0 million | |
| February 24 | 6:30 PM CST | EF2 | New Madrid, MO | 0.9 | 150 | 2 | $750,000 | |
| February 24 | 6:51 PM CST | EF0 | Obion, TN | 5.6 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| February 24 | 7:07 PM CST | EF1 | Obion, TN | 3.2 | 450 | 3 | $2.0 million | |
| February 24 | 7:17 PM CST | EF0 | Gibson, TN | 4.3 | 75 | $25,000 | ||
| February 24 | 7:21 PM CST | EF0 | Weakley, TN | 5.2 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| February 24 | 7:36 PM CST | EF0 | Weakley, TN | 7.4 | 75 | $25,000 | ||
| February 24 | 7:37 PM CST | EF1 | Calloway, KY | 8.3 | 125 | $450,000 | ||
| February 24 | 7:37 PM CST | EF1 | McCracken, KY | 1.9 | 100 | $85,000 | ||
| February 24 | 7:42 PM CST | EF1 | Graves, KY | 1.2 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| February 24 | 7:50 PM CST | EF1 | Calloway, KY | 1.4 | 100 | $550,000 | ||
| February 24 | 8:02 PM CST | EF1 | Henry, TN | 3.9 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| February 24 | 8:44 PM CST | EF0 | Christian, KY | 5.3 | 75 | $20,000 | ||
| February 24 | 8:45 PM CST | EF2 | Christian, KY | 5.4 | 200 | 9 | $6.0 million | |
| February 24 | 8:50 PM CST | EF1 | Montgomery, TN | 5.3 | 150 | $1.0 million | ||
| February 24 | 8:55 PM CST | EF0 | Christian, KY | 0.5 | 50 | $6,000 | ||
| February 24 | 9:03 PM CST | EF2 | Montgomery, TN | 4.1 | 200 | 2 | $7.0 million | |
| February 24 | 9:15 PM CST | EF0 | Logan, KY | 2.9 | 300 | $30,000 | ||
| February 24 | 9:19 PM CST | EF1 | Robertson, TN | 3.6 | 150 | $50,000 | ||
| February 24 | 9:21 PM CST | EF1 | Butler, KY | 1.4 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| February 24 | 9:50 PM CST | EF0 | Simpson, KY | 1.7 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| February 24 | 10:33 PM CST | EF2 | Green, KY | 1.3 | 100 | $130,000 | ||
| February 24 | 12:03 AM EST | EF1 | Clermont, OH | 3.5 | 200 | $85,000 | ||
| February 24 | 12:50 AM EST | EF1 | Garrard, KY | 0.1 | 100 | $50,000 |
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.