EF1 tornado, Preble County, Ohio, August 1, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

August 1, 2026

Touchdown

7:58 PM EDT (23:58 UTC)

Lifted

8:02 PM EDT (00:02 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

0.9 miles (1.5 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Preble County

Touchdown point

39.795, -84.672

Lift-off point

39.797, -84.657

Highest wind the damage implies

100 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ILN

The office's name for it

NW of Eaton OH

Survey last edited

August 4, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

The National Weather Service has confirmed an EF1 tornado northwest of Eaton in Preble County, Ohio.

This tornado primarily impacted areas near Surface Road. The first known damage occurred on the 1600-1700 block of Surface Road. There was some minor roof damage to well-built homes. One barn was destroyed, with cinder block wall collapse, and some sheet metal roofing material thrown into the field to the east.

Damage was then observed on the 1300-1400 block of Surface Road, where significant roof damage was noted at two homes, with sections of roofing material entirely removed. This damage supports wind speed estimates of 100 MPH. Other homes in the area had some minor roof damage. Tree damage was also extensive in the back yards of these homes, with several large healthy trees snapped.

Drone images provided by the Preble County Emergency Management Agency also depicted significant corn field damage in the vicinity of Surface Road. This damage also extended well to the east of Surface Road. Some of this corn field damage is from the tornado, but there is also a large expanse of flattened corn to the north of the path of the tornado, especially northeast of the bend on Surface Road. Much of the northern extent of the corn damage is oriented from northeast to southwest, suggesting a wide swath of strong inflow in the opposite direction of the tornado's motion. No damage of any kind was observed closer to State Route 726.

The National Weather Service would like to thank the Preble County Emergency Management Agency for their coordination and assistance.

Written by NWS ILN in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

13 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 100 mph.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:31 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

Richmond (RID), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:57 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 2026 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

7 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.