EF2 tornado, Ft Recovery to Chickasaw, Ohio, May 7, 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

May 7, 2024

Touchdown

7:50 PM EDT (23:50 UTC)

Lifted

8:08 PM EDT (00:08 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

8.1 miles (13.1 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Mercer County

Touchdown point

40.465, -84.792

Lift-off point

40.497, -84.643

Record number

2405071750-01

57 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.

• Multiple barns destroyed at location

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 late afternoon and evening hours ahead of a low pressure system moving through the Ohio Valley.

The first known damage from this tornado was found on Siegrist Jutte Road, where a few trees were downed. The most significant damage occurred in two groves of trees south of State Route 219, between Wabash Road and Saint Peter Road. Sections of these trees included greater than 70 percent tree loss, with trunks snapped. A few homes along Saint Peter Road also had a significant amount of roof damage. As the tornado continued to the east, several large outbuildings at farm properties were completely demolished or heavily damaged, while damage to well-built homes was generally limited to minor roof damage. The final known damage from this tornado occurred to some outbuildings along Burkettsville Saint Hen Road, just northwest of Coldwater.

The tornado began in a field east of Harrison Road and south of Guadalupe Road. The tornado moved east-northeast and caused significant damage to trees and outbuildings. The tornado moved into Auglaize County, just south of Guadalupe Road, at 1925EST. The tornado continued to move east across Auglaize County before ending at 1933EST, about 2.8 miles north of New Bremen.

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 23:46 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:01 UTC and running to 02:44 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:45 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.

Portland (PLD), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 128 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:49 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

52 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.