EF1 tornado, Franklin County, Ohio, August 11, 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 11, 2026

Touchdown

10:05 AM EDT (14:05 UTC)

Lifted

10:09 AM EDT (14:09 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Franklin County

Touchdown point

39.929, -82.988

Lift-off point

39.922, -82.956

Highest wind the damage implies

100 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ILN

The office's name for it

S Columbus OH

Survey last edited

August 18, 2026

Record number

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

An EF-1 intensity tornado occurred in south Columbus just after 10 a.m. EDT on August 11. The tornado began on South 8th Street between East Morrill Avenue and East Hinman Avenue, breaking and uprooting several trees. Siding and roof damage occurred to several residences farther east toward Parsons Avenue, while a business lost a substantial amount of its roof on the east side of Parsons Avenue. Tree and mostly light structural damage continued to the east between East Hinman Avenue and Woodrow Avenue as the tornado moved east of Barack Park and damaged numerous trees and homes along and east of South Champion Avenue to Lockbourne Road. Reeb Avenue was particularly hard hit by the tornado's damaging winds before it crossed Lockbourne Road and damaged more trees in conjunction with multiple businesses. Additional trees and homes were impacted west of Fairwood Avenue, including the roof of one home caving in due to fallen trees and significant damage to a metal roof of a business. The tornado lifted just west of Fairwood Avenue.

Several additional locations received damage from a larger line of thunderstorms that moved through Franklin County during the late morning of August 11, but the locations in south Columbus referenced above were consistent with damage along a convergent path suggesting that a tornado had occurred.

The National Weather Service would like to thank Franklin County Emergency Management for their assistance in conducting this storm damage survey.

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

77 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.

• partial side wall collapse

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 13:28 UTC and running to 15:31 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 12:26 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), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:04 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.