EF1 tornado, Ostrander to St Louisville, Ohio, March 14, 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

March 14, 2024

Touchdown

9:01 PM EDT (01:01 UTC)

Lifted

9:50 PM EDT (01:50 UTC)

On the ground

49 minutes

Path length

35.4 miles (56.9 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.5 million

Counties

Delaware and Licking counties

Touchdown point

40.260, -83.068

Lift-off point

40.157, -82.411

Record number

2403141901-01

245 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 110 mph.

• Trailer tipped and fence damaged.
• Extensive tree damage along south side of Cheshire Road
• Minor damage to walls of building. Limited damage surrounding.

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

Thunderstorms developed in an unseasonably warm and humid airmass ahead of an approaching cold front.

The tornado initially developed in Union County, at 1924EST, about 1.3 mile west of Lunda. The tornado moved east-southeast and entered Delaware County at 1948EST, about 2 miles northwest of Ostrander. As the tornado moved east across far western, it produced mainly tree damage before ending near U.S. Route 36.

The tornado developed in central Delaware County near U.S. Route 23. As the tornado crossed U.S. Route 23, it strengthened and widened and caused more widespread structural damage as it crossed the Olentangy River. Even more significant damage occurred as it moved along Berlin Station Road and in other areas of Berlin Township. Along this portion of the track, a number of homes sustained siding and roof damage and numerous trees were snapped and uprooted. Several barns were also destroyed. In the vicinity of Olentangy Berlin High School, parts of the school campus and athletic fields were damaged, signs were bent over, and several free-standing transmission towers were felled. In this area, maximum wind speeds were estimated to be around 110 mph.||The tornado crossed Alum Creek Reservoir and moved into neighborhoods southwest of Sunbury and west of Galena, where it caused widespread and significant tree damage and a large number of homes had windows blown out, roofs partially removed, and power poles snapped. Damage in these areas was consistent with wind speeds from 95 to 105 mph. ||As the tornado moved through the Galena area, there was a complex mix of straight-line wind damage through southern parts of the town of Galena with tornadic damage embedded across the north side of Galena. The damage field through this area was notably wide.||The tornado entered Licking County at 2022EST, about 3 miles SSE of Condit, and continued to moved east-southeast across much of northern Licking County before ending at 2050 EST, about 1 mile south-southeast of St. Louisville.

The tornado developed at 2001EST, about 3 miles south of Delaware, and moved east southeast across Delaware County. It entered Licking County at 2021EST, about 4 miles west-southwest of Hartford, where the damage path remained quite wide and was likely a complex mix of straight-line winds on the immediate southern flank of the tornadic circulation. However, the damage was very consistent with wind speeds ranging from 90 to 100 mph across most of Licking County. Along this entire stretch of the damage path, the damage was a combination of partial roofs removed on some homes, barns completely destroyed or heavily damaged, widespread trees uprooted and snapped, and power poles snapped. ||The tornado dissipated between State Route 13 and Horns Hills Road south of St. Louisville.

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

10 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:51 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:29 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:15 UTC and running to 04:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:51 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), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:00 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

24 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.