EF0 tornado, Darby Dan Arpt to Darbydale, Ohio, February 28, 2024

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

February 28, 2024

Touchdown

5:28 AM EST (10:28 UTC)

Lifted

5:29 AM EST (10:29 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Franklin County

Touchdown point

39.850, -83.225

Lift-off point

39.850, -83.215

Record number

2402280428-01

46 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.

• 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.

Showers and thunderstorms developed during the early morning hours ahead of a cold front moving through the Ohio Valley.

The tornado initially touched down in Madison County at 0514EST, 1 mile east of London. The tornado moved east-northeast and entered Franklin County at 0525EST, about 1.5 miles east southeast of West Jefferson. The tornado caused damage to trees and outbuildings as it moved through far Western Franklin County. The last known damage from this tornado occurred near the intersection of Alton Road and Murnan Road.

A weak tornado developed on the west side of Alton and Darby Creek Road and moved along the north side of Roberts Road through portions of the city of Hilliard. Along the path, damage was a consistent mix of snapped trees, uprooted trees, numerous instances of minor roof and siding damage. One home on Hilliard Rome Road lost part of its roof, and another home near Westbreeze Drive had an attached garage peeled away and shifted. Damage in this area was consistent with wind speeds of around 110 mph.||The tornado weakened as it approached Interstate 270 and dissipated on the east side of the interstate. Additional damage was observed on both the west and east side of the interstate.

The first known damage from this tornado occurred on the southeast corner of the intersection of Biggert Road and London Groveport Road. Several stands of trees in this area were damaged and some minor roof damage to outbuildings was also observed. One stand of trees south of London Groveport Road had several trees snapped at the trunk.||Additional minor tree damage was observed further west on London Groveport Road. After this, the tornado is believed to have moved over a forested area near Big Darby Creek and no additional damage was found.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:16 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 09:40 UTC and running to 11:53 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:07 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), 70 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:29 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

10 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.