EF1 tornado, Belden to Medina, Ohio, April 7, 2020

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

April 7, 2020

Touchdown

11:25 PM EDT (03:25 UTC)

Lifted

11:38 PM EDT (03:38 UTC)

On the ground

13 minutes

Path length

11.4 miles (18.4 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$80,000

Counties

Medina and Lorain counties

Touchdown point

41.239, -82.014

Lift-off point

41.125, -81.853

Record number

2004072125-01

19 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CLE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 97 mph.

• several large trees uprooted in several directions

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

A surface low moved from west-central Lower Michigan during the evening of April 7th to near Long Island by daybreak on April 8th. The accompanying cold front extended west-southwestward from the low and swept south-southeastward through northern Ohio during the early morning of the 8th. Along and ahead of the cold front, clusters of thunderstorms, including supercells, formed over southern Lake Michigan and southern Lower Michigan by the early evening of the 7th. These storms grew upscale into a squall line, which then moved generally southeastward through northern Ohio from late evening of the 7th through the first hour of the 8th. Additional more discrete thunderstorms, including supercells, developed ahead of the squall line. These storms encountered primarily moderate instability amidst strong effective bulk shear within the warm sector. In addition to numerous reports of damaging straight-line winds and severe hail, three QLCS tornadoes occurred within the squall line and affected portions of northeast Ohio.

An EF0 tornado began in rural Lorain County, about 0.5 miles east-northeast of Belden and just north of OH 303. As the tornado moved southeastward, it produced EF1 damage at a farm along Island Road. This EF1 damage consisted of a barn and small outbuildings being destroyed. Farther southeastward along the tornado's path, EF0 damage in the form of a garage door being blown-in occurred at a house along Law Road, about 0.5 miles west of where it intersects Medina Elyria Road. The tornado continued moving southeastward and entered Medina County about 0.3 miles north of the intersection of Neff Road and Erhart Road. No fatalities or injuries occurred.

An EF0 tornado entered Medina County from Lorain County about 0.3 miles north of the intersection of Neff Road and Erhart Road. As the tornado continued moving southeastward, large hardwood tree branches were snapped at the intersection of Spieth Road and Lester Road along Mallet Creek. At a nearby farm on Lester Road, about 0.5 miles south of Spieth Road, a small outbuilding lost its roof panels. The EF0 tornado traveled farther southeastward and as it entered Medina, large hardwood tree branches were broken at the intersection of West Smith Road and South Huntington Street, while minor roof damage occurred at a plaza along the north side of Lafayette Road, between South Huntington Street and South Elmwood Street. The tornado dissipated at the intersection of Wadsworth Road and Smokerise Drive in Medina, where softwood trees were uprooted. No fatalities or injuries occurred.

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:08 UTC and running to 04:46 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:49 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 Cleveland radar (KCLE), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:26 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 2020 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.