EF1 tornado, Roseville, 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

1:35 AM EDT (05:35 UTC)

Lifted

1:38 AM EDT (05:38 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

750 yards (686 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$120,000

Counties

Perry and Muskingum counties

Touchdown point

39.814, -82.102

Lift-off point

39.803, -82.068

Record number

1905272335-01

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS RLX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• Several large trees uprooted and snapped with clear evidence of rotation in the felled trees.
• Roof blown off of back porch

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

A warm front lifted through the middle Ohio River Valley overnight from the 27th to the 28th. A potent upper level wave was moving through at the same time, and the combination of these two features led to thunderstorm development. Abundant low level spin in the atmosphere lead to a couple tornadoes, and also some other wind damage.

Mid-level westerly flow of 45-70kts streamed over the Great Lakes/Upper Ohio Valley. A shortwave trough embedded within this zonal flow entered the region and moved eastward throughout the day, helping to provide forcing for ascent and strengthening of deep layer shear. Mid-level westerly flow of 45 to 70 knots also streamed over the Great Lakes and the Upper Ohio Valley. Large hail was supported by mean layer CAPE of 1500 to 3000 J/kg and effective bulk shear of 35 to 50kts. Additionally, strong synoptic winds and steepening low-level lapse rates increased the severe wind threat.

A National Weather Service storm survey team found damage consistent with an EF1 tornado with estimated maximum wind speeds of 100 mph. The first damage was found along Township Road 71A, west of Roseville, where trees were blown down, swirls were seen in a hay field, and the roof of a porch was blown off. From there damage continued east southeast crossing State Route 93 into the town of Roseville and eventually Muskingum County. In Roseville, many trees were downed, several power poles were snapped, and an awning was blown off a house, which also sustained siding damage.

The NWS Storm Survey confirms an EF1 tornaod went through town with winds around 105mph to 109mph. Damage was noted right at |the county line at the intersection of Perry Street and West 1st |Street and continued eastward through town. There was extensive |tree damage that was used to determine the EF1 rating. Over 70 |hardwood trees were either uprooted, snapped, or lost large limbs.|There were over 20 softwood trees that sustained similar damage. |Several homes sustained damage due to trees falling on them. |Additionally up to ten homes lost less than 20% of their shingles |from the wind. There was a tractor trailer that was used for |storage that was overturned. A shed was completely destroyed along|with several other loose outdoor items adjacent to homes in the |town of Roseville. The tornado lifted just west of Hoop Pole Road,|where large branches were brought down in a wooded area. The |beginning point of this tornado is pending further evidence |from a survey by the National Weather Service in Charleston, WV.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 04:10 UTC and running to 06:27 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 Slight 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.

Zanesville (ZZV), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 155 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:32 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.