EF1 tornado, Glen Karn to Pitsburg, Ohio, May 27, 2019

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

May 27, 2019

Touchdown

10:04 PM EDT (02:04 UTC)

Lifted

10:06 PM EDT (02:06 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.7 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Darke County

Touchdown point

39.968, -84.715

Lift-off point

39.969, -84.707

Record number

1905272004-01

1 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 95 mph.

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

Thunderstorms developed during the evening hours along a warm front lifting slowly north across the region. Many of the thunderstorms produced tornadoes, including a few strong to violent tornadoes.

The tornado initially touched down just inside the Ohio state line in southwest Darke County, about 2 miles south of the village of Hollansburg. Damage began as downed trees along with a barn roof and walls that were lifted and carried about 200 yards downwind on Hollansburg-Richmond Road. There was evidence of a convergent debris pattern and some evidence of back splatter, indicative of a tornado. The tornado continued over open fields until it destroyed another barn, just south of Moore Road, completely removing the roof and roof joists and collapsing exterior walls. There was also siding and awning damage to the home, as well as a large uprooted tree. The damage in this area was consistent with EF1 winds of 90 mph. ||The tornado continued to Payne Road, resulting in some roof and siding damage to a barn, more indicative of EF0 damage.

A tornado briefly touched down in and near the village of New Madison. Much of the damage was consistent with EF0 wind speeds, as numerous large tree branches were damaged and minor roof damage occurred to structures. There was some damage indicative of EF1 winds of around 90 mph, namely large sections of roof uplifted at a lumber yard barn storage building. Elsewhere through the village, there was brick damage to the front facade of a downtown business, in addition to broken windows and some uplift of roof material. Much of this damage was more indicative of EF0 winds.

Damage from this tornado is believed to have begun near the intersection of Schnorf-Jones Road and Stocker Road in Darke County, just over a mile southeast of Pitsburg. From here, the tornado traveled east, affecting West River Red Grove Road. Damage along these roads was generally limited to trees. The tornado crossed into Miami County at 2128EST along Hall Road, about 4 miles east of Pitsburg. The tornado continued to move east across Miami County, eventually ending at 2144EST, about 4 miles southwest of Troy. While the tornado produced low-end EF3 damage in Miami County, the maximum strength in Darke County was consistent with EF1 damage and the maximum tornado width was about 1200 yards.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:36 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:21 UTC and running to 03:40 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:18 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), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:05 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

62 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 63 of them

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.