Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 2022

EF0 tornado, Middleboro to Clarksville, Ohio, March 23, 2022

From Middleboro to Clarksville, this EF0 tornado ran 1.7 miles across Warren and Clinton counties on March 23, 2022, touching down at 3:42 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $12,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
March 23, 2022
Touchdown
3:42 PM EDT (19:42 UTC)
Lifted
3:45 PM EDT (19:45 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
1.7 miles (2.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$12,000
Counties
Warren and Clinton counties
Touchdown point
39.392, -84.006
Lift-off point
39.410, -83.990
Record number
2203231342-01

The damage survey

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 81 mph.

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

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered thunderstorms developed through the afternoon hours ahead of a low pressure system moving through the Ohio Valley.

The tornado initially touched down along Todd's Fork Creek south of Highway 350, where a barn collapsed. The tornado moved along Todd's Fork Creek, uprooting and snapping trees along its path and flipping a pop-up camper. The tornado crossed Highway 350 and continued along Todd's Fork Creek where a home experienced minor damage, including doors that were blown in. The tornado then crossed into Clinton County at Springhill Road and lifted in a wooded area on the east side of Springhill Road at 1445 EST.

The tornado initially touched down along Todd's Fork Creek south of Highway 350 in Warren County at 1442 EST. The tornado crossed into Clinton County at Springhill Road and quickly lifted in a wooded area on the east side of Springhill Road where some minor tree damage occurred.

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

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:38 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:46 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:53 UTC and running to 22:29 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:53 UTC22:29 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchILN
19:38 UTC19:46 UTCTornado WarningILN

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:38 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 air that afternoon

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.

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z

7.7 hours before the tornado, 17 km from the path. March 23, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2022-03-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 12 joules per kilogram, CIN -293, lifted condensation level 1412 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 2022-03-23The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 496 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 98 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
12 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-293 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1412 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
98 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
496 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
504 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

4.3 hours after it, 17 km from the path. March 24, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2022-03-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 425 joules per kilogram, CIN -5, lifted condensation level 1309 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 2022-03-24The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 109 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 108 knots.1939587897117136156Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
425 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-5 J/kg
Surface CAPE
412 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1309 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
108 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
109 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
156 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
3.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 15 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:44 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:20 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 W EnglewoodMontgomery, OHSEVERAL LARGE LIMBS DOWN IN THE 7000 BLOCK OF BROOKVILLE SALEM ROAD.
19:42 UTCTORNADO 01 Sw ClarksvilleWarren, OHNWS STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED A BRIEF AND WEAK TORNADO ALONG TODDS FORK CREEK NEAR CLARKSVILLE, OHIO. TREES WERE SNAPPED AND UPROOTED,WITH MINOR STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO A BARN AND HOUSE.
19:43 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 W ClarksvilleWarren, OHPOSSIBLE TORNADIC DAMAGE. NUMEROUS TREES DOWNED. A STRUCTURE DAMAGED ALONG WITH A CAR AND CAMPER THAT WERE FLIPPED OVER.
21:56 UTCHAIL 0.75VandaliaMontgomery, OHLIGHTLY COVERING THE GROUND.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 23, 2022

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 232:53 PM EDTEF0Echols, GA0.525
March 235:31 PM EDTUnratedVan Wert, OH0.320
March 236:11 PM EDTEF0Huron, OH0.8100$5,000
March 238:56 PM EDTEF2Pickens, SC6.3440$250,000
March 239:29 PM EDTEF0Pickens, SC0.120
March 239:45 PM EDTEF2Carroll, VA1.9125$400,000
March 2310:59 PM EDTEF1Alexander, NC6.2150$25,000

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.