EF2 tornado, Blacklick to Granville, Ohio, February 28, 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 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

February 28, 2024

Touchdown

5:49 AM EST (10:49 UTC)

Lifted

6:03 AM EST (11:03 UTC)

On the ground

14 minutes

Path length

14.0 miles (22.6 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

Counties

Franklin and Licking counties

Touchdown point

40.022, -82.819

Lift-off point

40.062, -82.559

Record number

2402280449-01

53 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 in the Havens Corners area near Blacklick Elementary School and quickly strengthened as it moved through the Havenswood neighborhood, where it produced tree and minor structural damage indicative of winds between 85 mph and 100 mph. The tornado continued to rapidly strengthen as it approached McOwen Road, where considerable tree damage was observed and numerous stands of soft and hard wood trees were uprooted or completely snapped off. A shipping container was also tossed and a home suffered extensive roof loss along with the loss of one exterior wall. In this area, winds were estimated to be around 120 mph. The tornado began weakening slightly as it crossed into Licking County at 0553EST, near the intersection of Dixon and McOwen Roads. The tornado continued east-northeast across western Licking County and ended at 0603EST, about 2 miles west southwest of Granville.

The tornado began in Franklin County at 0549EST in the Havens Corners area. It moved east-northeast and entered Licking County near the intersection of Dixon and McOwen Roads at 0553EST. The tornado caused a wide swath of tree and structural damage along its path across Graham Road SW and the Jersey area. Structural damage was mainly in the form of windows blown out, destroyed barns, and minor roof removal. The tornado slowly weakened as it moved east-northeast toward the southwest side of Granville where it dissipated. Along this stretch, mainly tree and very minor structural damage was noted.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:43 UTC, 6 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.

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 119 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.