EF0 tornado, Franklin County, 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

10:05 AM EDT (14:05 UTC)

Lifted

10:08 AM EDT (14:08 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.3 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

County

Franklin County

Touchdown point

40.017, -83.038

Lift-off point

40.025, -82.988

Highest wind the damage implies

80 mph

Surveyed by

NWS ILN

The office's name for it

E of Upper Arlington OH

Survey last edited

August 28, 2026

Record number

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

The National Weather Service in Wilmington Ohio has confirmed an EF0 east of Upper Arlington in Franklin County in Ohio.

This tornado likely began near Kenny Road, crossing the Olentangy Freeway (OH-315) on the east side of Upper Arlington. Video footage captured the tornado moving east on the south side of Ackerman road, causing tree and minor building damage. Tree damage exhibiting convergent wind patterns was observed along Ackerman road near Fred Taylor Drive. After crossing the Olentangy River, additional tree damage was observed on North High Street and a few businesses sustained damage involving minor roof damage and broken windows. The tornado then followed Glen Echo Creek eastward, causing damage to trees along the creek and Olentangy Street. Several homes were damaged by the trees. Moving in a more northeast direction, additional tree damage was observed along US-23 and surrounding neighborhoods. As the tornado approached I-71, minor roof damage was observed to a building along Silver Drive. Video from an ODOT traffic camera then observed the tornado crossing I-71 at the Weber Road exit, flipping a single vehicle. Tree damage and minor home damage was then found on Beulah Road and East Weber Road. The tornado likely dissipated near this location, with additional straight line winds observed to the east.

The National Weather Service would like to thank the Franklin County Ohio Emergency Management Agency, the Ohio State University Emergency Management Agency, the State Climate Office of Ohio, and the Ohio Department of Transportation for their assistance with this survey and damage assessment.

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

88 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 100 mph.

• partial side wall collapse
• Convergent wind pattern in field.
• Convergent crop pattern in field
• Convergent crop pattern in field.

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), 96 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.