EF2 tornado, Branch Hill to Modest, Ohio, July 6, 2022

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 6, 2022

Touchdown

3:05 PM EDT (19:05 UTC)

Lifted

3:13 PM EDT (19:13 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

4.8 miles (7.7 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$3.0 million

County

Clermont County

Touchdown point

39.243, -84.183

Lift-off point

39.198, -84.114

Record number

2207061305-01

130 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• IMG.24 Photo source: Ohio State Highway Patrol
• Photo source: Ohio State Highway Patrol
• Numerous trees snapped Photo source: Ohio State Highway Patrol
• Siding found over on Three Chimneys Lane.

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

Thunderstorms developed ahead of a frontal boundary moving into a warm and humid airmass that was in place across the Ohio Valley.

The initial tornado damage consisted of uprooted trees and damaged fences, just south of the intersection of Oriskany Drive and Almahurst Lane. Damage continued along the lake shore of the community lake. The tornado intensified as it crossed Belle Meade Farms Drive and eventually Three Chimneys Lane, where minor roof and siding damage occurred along with dozens of snapped and uprooted trees. The tornado then crossed Wards Corner Road where it snapped a few dozen hardwood trees and caused more fence and minor roof damage. Additional damage was found along Murle Lane,|Ironwood Drive, and Paxton Woods Drive.||Additional damage extended all the way to State Route 28, but this was determined to be from straight line winds. Damage noted in this stretch included hundreds of downed trees and some minor property damage, including siding loss to a home.

The tornado touched down along Blue Sky Drive where several barns were damaged and multiple trees were uprooted and snapped. Additional damage consisting of dozens of snapped and uprooted trees occurred just southeast of the Huntley Road and Goshen Road intersection.||As the tornado approached Goshen, it rapidly strengthened and grew to around 500 yards in width. The tornado crossed Main Street, just to the west of State Route 28, causing significant damage to a couple of businesses. An insurance agency completely lost its roof and several of the exterior walls collapsed. A woman inside the business was transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The large and strong tornado then crossed State Route 28, significantly damaging a fire station and causing complete roof loss to a brick business next door. Most of the exterior walls on|the business also collapsed. A firefighter at the fire station also suffered minor injuries. This was the strongest point in the tornado life cycle with winds estimated around 130 mph.||The tornado continued moving southeast along Goshen Road, snapping hundreds of trees and causing at least six more homes to completely lose their roofs. A couple of additional homes also had some failure of exterior walls. The tornado struck both the middle and high schools causing some roof and siding damage. The tornado continued moving to the southeast crossing Woodville Pike near its intersection with Manila Road. The tornado then crossed Moler Road where it completely destroyed a barn and downed dozens of trees. Based on aerial footage, the tornado likely lifted somewhere between Moler Road and Cedarville Road.

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 16:35 UTC and running to 21:23 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. The outlook in force was issued at 16:18 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.

Batavia (I69), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:02 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 2022 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.