EF0 tornado, Brown and Highland counties, Ohio, August 11, 2026

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0, preliminary

Date

August 11, 2026

Touchdown

3:56 PM EDT (19:56 UTC)

Lifted

4:04 PM EDT (20:04 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

6.4 miles (10.3 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Brown and Highland counties

Touchdown point

39.150, -83.933

Lift-off point

39.084, -83.853

Highest wind the damage implies

80 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ILN

The office's name for it

NW of Buford OH

Survey last edited

September 16, 2026

Record number

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

The National Weather Service in Wilmington Ohio has confirmed an EF0 tornado northwest of Buford in Brown and Highland counties in Ohio.

This tornado began in Brown County near US Route 68 south of Gauche Road, where most of a roof was removed from a barn. A swath of damage in an adjacent field was observed on satellite imagery as the tornado continued to the southeast. Tree damage was then observed on Huber Road, and in the area of Thery Road and Upper Five Mile Road, where some tree damage was observed. As the tornado moved southeast, a barn was significantly damaged on Dietrick Road, along with some additional tree damage. The tornado then entered Highland County, producing tree damage in various places along Beltz Road. A house on the east side of Beltz Road had some shingles removed. Near the end of the tornado's path, a stand of trees was snapped on Beltz Road just north of Waits Road.

Scattered straight-line wind damage, generally damage to trees, was also observed around the edges of the track of the tornado.

The National Weather Service would like to thank the Brown County and Highland County Emergency Management Agencies for their assistance and coordination.

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

58 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 95 mph.

• Also outbuilding destroyed
• Also many trees snapped and uprooted
• Tree damage observed north and south of this intersection.
• Numerous trees down on the north side of Half-Acre Road.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS ILN issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:47 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:39 UTC and running to 23:28 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:11 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.

Batavia (I69), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cincinnati radar (KILN), 34 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:58 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

28 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.