EF0 tornado, Brewster to Middle Branch, Ohio, March 14, 2019

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

March 14, 2019

Touchdown

8:11 PM EDT (00:11 UTC)

Lifted

8:17 PM EDT (00:17 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

8.7 miles (14.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Stark County

Touchdown point

40.735, -81.579

Lift-off point

40.801, -81.443

Record number

1903141811-01

12 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CLE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 83 mph.

• Large hardwood uprooted on home with large branches missing from other hardwood trees. Several pine trees also uprooted or snapped.
• Large limbs off several trees and power lines down. Trampoline displaced.
• Several pine trees snapped fallen different directions.
• Trees uprooted and large limbs snapped. One pine tree fell onto a mobile home.

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

A warm front moved north across the region on March 14th on the east side of an unusually strong low pressure system that tracked north and west of the region from the High Plains of Colorado to the central Great Lakes. A very strong wind field extended across the region on the 14th with extreme wind shear through the entire atmosphere. Initially during the morning hours, mild but dry conditions prevailed with temperatures from 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit with dew points in the 30s to lower 40s. During the afternoon temperatures rose to the 65 to 75 degree range and dew points followed. Convection developed over Indiana and southwest Ohio and gradually spread into the region during the evening. Strong to severe thunderstorms tracked from central Ohio into the eastern Ohio in the form of a QLCS with embedded bows and rotating elements. Within this line of convection, two EF-0 tornadoes developed over Stark County, Ohio. Thunderstorm wind damage was also noted in other parts of Stark County and into adjacent Holmes County, Ohio.

A NWS storm survey found an EF-0 tornado was on the ground for approximately 8.7 miles with estimated wind speeds up to 80 mph and a path width of 50 yards. Most of the damage associated with this tornado was uprooted trees and broken limbs, along with the occasional structure damage such as shingles and siding missing. The most significant structural damage occurred from at least 2 trees falling on houses.

A NWS storm survey found an EF-0 tornado was on the ground for approximately 1.6 miles and had estimated wind speeds up to 85 mph and a path width of 100 yards. There was considerable tree damage, including uprooted trees and snapped limbs, along Easton Street and Pilot Knob Ave. In this area, there were several structures with minor damage to them, including missing shingles and siding. The most significant structural damage included a garage shifted off of its foundation and damaged barn doors.

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

16 minutes of warning. NWS CLE issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:55 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 23:58 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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.

Akron / Canton (CAK), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:08 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 2019 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

31 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.