EF1 tornado, Clayton to West Union, Ohio, April 2, 2024

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 2, 2024

Touchdown

7:46 PM EDT (23:46 UTC)

Lifted

7:57 PM EDT (23:57 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

7.9 miles (12.7 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$200,000

County

Adams County

Touchdown point

38.766, -83.647

Lift-off point

38.817, -83.516

Record number

2404021746-01

84 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Garage destroyed with contents blown around, tree damage
• Single bracket anchoring on two corners
• photo credit: Ohio State Highway Patrol
• Photo credit: Ohio State Highway Patrol

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

A low pressure system moving through the Ohio Valley produced widespread showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon and evening hours.

The tornado began south of the intersection of Brier Ridge Road and Robinson Hollow Road, southwest of West Union. Damage to trees and structures occurred here, with one manufactured structure on Robinson Hollow Road completely destroyed. From here, the tornado continued northeast and caused outbuilding and tree damage along Fryman Road.||The tornado then caused damage along Eagle Creek Road and Tomlin Road, with the Kirker Covered Bridge losing all of it's roofing panels. Several well constructed outbuildings were heavily damaged on Tomlin Road and multiple large hardwood trees were snapped. Similar magnitude damage was observed along State Route 136 and McClanahan Road, where hardwood trees were snapped and some structures were damaged. Winds in this area were estimated to be around 100 mph. ||To the northeast, along Old Cincinnati Pike and Stan Roberts Road, the damage intensity lessened slightly as the tornado expanded to the maximum estimated with of 500 yards. Uprooted and snapped trees continued to be observed along State Route 125, Nehus Road, Chaparal Road, and State Route 247. Damage became less persistent to the northeast, but considerable tree loss at the Adams Lake State Park indicated the tornado was still on the ground northeast of West Union. The tornado is believed to have dissipated to the west of State Route 41.

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

5 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:41 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:50 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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 Cincinnati radar (KILN), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:43 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 2024 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

68 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 69 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.