EF2 tornado, New Athens to Duncanwood, Ohio, July 29, 2021

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

July 29, 2021

Touchdown

4:50 PM EDT (20:50 UTC)

Lifted

5:00 PM EDT (21:00 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.4 km)

Path width

220 yards (201 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$200,000

County

Harrison County

Touchdown point

40.190, -81.010

Lift-off point

40.180, -80.960

Record number

2107291450-01

32 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PBZ, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.

• several large hardwood trees uprooted in convergent pattern
• fench broken at 4 inch post and cement footer
• potential starting point. maybe just west near powerlines
• several reports of two funnels

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

A shortwave passage during the morning of July 29th spread mainly non-severe showers and thunderstorms across the region during the morning and midday hours. However, a discrete cell along the back edge of the morning activity was able to develop an EF1 tornado in Pennsylvania along the Fayette-Westmoreland County border. This was a preview of what was to follow. ||In the wake of this morning activity, instability was able to build as partial clearing occurred. Additional thunderstorms were able to develop in association with a prefrontal trough. These storms were able to take advantage of deep shear, especially in the lower levels. A cross-boundary component to this shear allowed discrete supercells to form during the mid and late afternoon hours. Storm motions were favorable for the ingestion of streamwise vorticity, allowing for rotating storms, and the development of additional tornadoes in southwest Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. In all, four torndoes formed in eastern Ohio. Two of these were rated at EF-2, thanks to impressive examples of tree and structural damage at peak intensity. Thankfully, no injuries were reported. A few other reports of hail and damaging wind were received as well.

The path of the tornado began just west of the town of New Athens |where the damage was mainly to soft and hardwood trees. Several |trees were uprooted or snapped. The tornado then continued over |the hill toward the town of New Athens. Several large trees were |uprooted and roof damage was observed on both sides of route 9/Main |Street in town.| |The most notable damage occurred in town just off of Culbertson |Drive and McFarland Road. Several trees were snapped low on the trunks |and additional large trees were uprooted. A home on Culbertson lost several |large sections of roof, with pieces found in a field 1.4 miles away. Pieces |of the roof were also found embedded in the ground just east of the home. It was in this area where|the tornado's maximum wind of 115 to 120 MPH was observed. On McFarland, more tree damage was observed. A small shed outside of a garage was demolished, with only the cement pad remaining and a power pole was snapped at the base. ||The path continued down the hill from McFarland along route 519 where |additional power poles were snapped and numerous trees were snapped/uprooted. |Damage was then observed above the next hill on the south side of route 519 southeast |of Ridge Creek Lodge, where beyond a field a grove of hardwoods were snapped or uprooted.|Video footage from this vantage point notes that the tornado did lift a couple of times but |further tree damage was noted on the eastern side of Ross Run before the tornado dissipated.

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 19:16 UTC and running to 00:39 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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 Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:50 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 2021 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

36 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.