EF1 tornado, Eastview to (Ffo)Wright-Patt Afb, 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 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

February 28, 2024

Touchdown

4:37 AM EST (09:37 UTC)

Lifted

4:41 AM EST (09:41 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

2.4 miles (3.8 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$510,000

Counties

Montgomery and Greene counties

Touchdown point

39.770, -84.109

Lift-off point

39.780, -84.066

Record number

2402280337-01

8 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 107 mph.

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 first touched down in far northeast Montgomery County, near dwellings located just south of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Large hardwood branches were broken near the intersection of Mitchell Drive and Spinning Road. Minor tree damage continued across Airway Road into portions of the Wright Field Airport, where it crossed into Greene County at 0438EST. The tornado continued east-northeast into Greene County before lifting near Wright State University at 0441EST.

The tornado initially touched down at 0437EST in far northeast Montgomery County, near the intersection of Mitchell Drive and Spinning Road. The tornado moved quickly east-northeast and entered Greene County, just past Airway Road as it moved into the far southern portions of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base at 0438EST. ||A restoration hangar at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base received minor structural damage with sheet metal ripped off. Some planes that were in the process of being restored also suffered damage due to flying debris. This damage was notable enough to warrant EF1 strength winds of around 100 mph. Additional damage occurred along Loop Road, where guard rails were bent and several hardwood trees were broken and snapped. A few of the dwellings on the eastern side of the base had damage to the roofs as shingles were ripped off. ||More residential damage was observed just east of the base, with quite a bit of shingles lost on the roof of an apartment complex, just behind a grocery store. Based on the damage, the tornado weakened as it traveled further eastward from this point, with mainly tree damage observed. The last bit of tree damage was found near University Boulevard, just west of the Student Union at Wright State University.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 09:33 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 09:42 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 03:30 UTC and running to 11:00 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 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.

Wright Paterson (FFO), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 09:35 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.