EF0 tornado, Groveport to Waterloo, 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

5:48 AM EST (10:48 UTC)

Lifted

5:54 AM EST (10:54 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

5.7 miles (9.2 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

Counties

Franklin and Fairfield counties

Touchdown point

39.838, -82.886

Lift-off point

39.852, -82.776

Record number

2402280448-01

44 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 120 mph.

• Numerous snapped and uprooted pine trees at Walnut Woods Metro Park.
• Social media report, multiple trees damaged and plastic gazebo moved from foundation.
• Minor damage to Blacklick School baseball diamond netting.

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 began within or near the Walnut Woods Metro Park area, more specifically west of Richardson Road. Numerous pine trees were snapped and uprooted, likely indicating the strongest period of the tornado. The tornado continued eastward over Lithopolis Road where more tree damage was observed. In the Canal Winchester area, additional tree damage and light structure damage was observed throughout the city, with the damage centered on West Waterloo Street on the north side of town. The tornado then moved into Fairfield County as it crossed U.S. Route 33 at 0552EST. The tornado ended at 0554EST, about 1.5 miles north of Waterloo.

The tornado initially touched down in Franklin County at 0548EST, 1 mile south of Groveport. It moved east-northeast and entered Fairfield County at 0552EST, as it moved across U.S. Route 33 in Canal Winchester. The tornado caused minor damage to trees and structures south of Dove Parkway before ending.

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 10:43 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:54 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.

Rickenbacker Ang (LCK), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:49 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.