EF2 tornado, Lunda to Condit, 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 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

March 14, 2024

Touchdown

8:24 PM EDT (00:24 UTC)

Lifted

8:52 PM EDT (00:52 UTC)

On the ground

28 minutes

Path length

19.5 miles (31.3 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$550,000

Counties

Union and Delaware counties

Touchdown point

40.372, -83.525

Lift-off point

40.283, -83.176

Record number

2403141824-01

241 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILN, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 125 mph.

• Trailer tipped and fence damaged.
• Extensive tree damage along south side of Cheshire Road
• Minor damage to walls of building. Limited damage surrounding.
• Light swirl marks noted in field east of SR 292.

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 developed in far western Union County near Newton Perkins Road and strengthened as it moved east across Lunda and Morse Roads where it caused some roof damage to homes. The tornado quickly strengthened further and affected a number of homes along Evans Road as it crossed State Route 739 and then continued southeast to areas just north of Broadway. Across portions of that corridor, damage was consistent with wind speeds of 115 to 125 mph. One modular home was completely destroyed with its contents thrown downstream nearly a half mile and another home lost a majority of its roof with exterior wall collapse. ||Significant tree damage was observed near Broadway, including in a cemetery just to the east of Broadway. As the tornado passed Broadway and continued southeast across State Routes 31 and 4, a number of additional homes and barns were impacted, with roof damage being common. Tree damage along the entire length of the tornado was considerable with trees uprooted and trunks snapped. The tornado crossed into Delaware County about 4 miles northeast of New Dover at 1948EST. The tornado continued east across far western Delaware County before ending at 1952EST, about 2 miles northeast of Ostrander.

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.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:51 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:15 UTC and running to 02:53 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:37 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), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:24 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.