EF3 tornado, Potsdam to Troy Skypark Arpt, 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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 27, 2019

Touchdown

10:25 PM EDT (02:25 UTC)

Lifted

10:44 PM EDT (02:44 UTC)

On the ground

19 minutes

Path length

10.5 miles (16.9 km)

Path width

1,320 yards (1207 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$10 million

Counties

Darke and Miami counties

Touchdown point

39.976, -84.468

Lift-off point

39.972, -84.270

Record number

1905272025-01

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 in Darke County at 2125EST, about a mile southeast if Pitsburg. It moved east and entered Miami County at 2128EST along Hall Road, about a half mile northwest of Potsdam. ||As the tornado entered Miami County, significant tree damage occurred on State Route 721 south of Laura. Structural damage began to occur near the intersection of Wright Road and Markley Road, with partial roof loss to an outbuilding. On Ditmer Road and South Shiloh Road, nearly every property sustained tree damage, some of which was significant.||As the tornado neared State Route 571, structural damage became much more severe. Several homes on State Route 571 between South Shiloh Road and South Range Line Road were rendered uninhabitable. Many homes had at least partial roof removal and some sustained complete roof removal. A few homes suffered the collapse of some exterior walls and while this was more common with garage walls, it also occurred on a few well-built walls away from garages. At one home, a lawn tractor was thrown out into the adjacent field to the northeast.||Damage was very similar across the field on South Range Line Road. Two homes experienced complete roof removal, with one also having walls collapse on multiple sides of the second story of the home. Mud splatter on all sides of structures was significant, and one vehicle interior was largely covered in mud after the failure of the rear window. Another home lost a significant portion of the roof, as well as losing quite a bit of material from an interior wall after the winds had entered the structure. The rotating winds of the tornado were very obvious on this north-to-south oriented road. Along the northern portion of the tornado track, one home lost its entire roof and had it deposited hundreds of feet into the field to the west, opposite the direction of motion of the tornado. Along the southern portion of the tornado track, debris accumulated across the field, along a tree line over a quarter mile away to the east.||The width of this tornado was most evident as it passed east across Elleman Road. Damage was observed as far south as the intersection with State Route 571 and as far north as several spots along State Route 55. While the damage on State Route 55 was primarily to roofing material and trees, more significant structural damage continued to be observed a little farther south on Elleman Road.||The tornado maintained its intensity as it crossed State Route 48 about a mile and a half north of downtown West Milton. Tree damage was severe along this road, with canopy loss even to trees that remained standing. Many structures were heavily damaged or destroyed. The only known injury from this tornado occurred when a trailer home was flipped over. A well-built brick home suffered the collapse of large portions of the west-facing and south-facing walls, with near-complete roof removal. A garage adjacent to this property was flattened. A trailer home just to the south was completely destroyed, with the failure of nearly all exterior walls and even some interior walls. Debris from these homes and structures was carried about a half mile across the field, stopped only by the tree line from traveling farther.||Widespread tree damage and moderate structural damage continued to be observed as the tornado moved east across Calumet Road, Kessler-Frederick Road, and Kessler Road. One home on Kessler Road lost its entire roof and a full-size camper was thrown and wedged against the garage.||Less significant damage was observed after passing Kessler Road, where the tornado turned from the east to the southeast. Damage observed on Nashville Road south of West Kessler Cowlesville Road was limited to trees, and it is believed that the tornado dissipated somewhere in this vicinity.||This tornado was responsible for a lengthy swath of EF2 level damage, generally 120 to 130 mph, extending from State Route 571 to Kessler Road. However, damage to a few homes on State Route 571, South Range Line Road, and State Route 48, was notably more significant, with a combined degree of roof loss and exterior wall collapse that warranted an estimate of 140 mph winds, within the EF3 category.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:06 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 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 0.05 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.

Dayton (DAY), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:22 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.