EF1 tornado, Mt Gilead, Ohio, March 26, 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

March 26, 2026

Touchdown

8:41 PM EDT (00:41 UTC)

Lifted

8:43 PM EDT (00:43 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.5 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Morrow County

Touchdown point

40.559, -82.807

Lift-off point

40.542, -82.788

Highest wind the damage implies

95 mph

Surveyed by

NWS CLE

The office's name for it

GileadTor

Survey last edited

March 27, 2026

Record number

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

The tornado began northeast of Mount Gilead along US 42 near Home Road, causing extensive tree damage including multiple snapped and uprooted trees. The tornado continued southeast crossing Township Road 103, causing sporadic tree damage. The tornado then crossed OH 95 near Township Road 110, destroying a 60ft by 100ft outbuilding. Debris from this outbuilding was thrown 100-200 yards to the south southeast by the tornado before the tornado ended.

Scattered tree and some structural damage associated with straight line winds were found both north and south of the tornado track, consisted with straight line winds up to 75 mph.

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

4 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CLE, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 95 mph.

• 60 x 100 ft outbuilding completely destroyed, debris thrown to the south southeast in a concentrated path for 100 to 200 yds
• Group of pines snapped and twisted in a convergent pattern. Several hardwood trees uprooted.
• Southwest corner of roof panel ripped from building, lofted to the southeast and spread out across the field.
• Sporadic but concentrated area of snapped trees.

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

At the surface, a cold front moved from the southern Great Lakes region to the Upper and Middle Ohio Valley during the early afternoon through late evening hours of the 26th as a low moved east-northeastward from southern Quebec to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Along and ahead of the front, scattered multicell and isolated supercell thunderstorms impacted northern Ohio as the storms persisted generally eastward or southeastward during the late afternoon through mid-evening hours of the 26th, amidst moderate to strong effective bulk shear and weak to moderate MUCAPE. The storms produced sporadic straight-line convective wind damage and severe hail. Two weak tornadoes occurred; one in Morrow County and the other in Knox County, where mixed layer LCL's were favorably-low and surface-based ESRH was maximized due to southwesterly low-level jet development.

This tornado had peak intensity of EF1, with estimated peak winds of 95-mph, and impacted the northeastern and eastern outskirts of Mount Gilead. The tornado began along U.S. Route 42, near Home Road, and caused extensive tree damage, which included multiple snapped and uprooted trees. The tornado continued southeastward, crossed Township Road 103, and caused sporadic tree damage. The tornado then crossed OH Route 95, near Township Road 110, and destroyed a 60 foot by 100 foot outbuilding. Debris from this outbuilding were displaced about 100 to 200 yards to the south-southeast by the tornado before the tornado ended. Scattered tree damage and some structural damage associated with straight line convective wind gusts up to 75-mph were found both north and south of the tornado track. Radar data suggest this tornado was associated with a cyclonic mesovortex along the poleward side of the descending rear-inflow jet of a bow echo and the bow echo was embedded within the flanking line of a cyclonic supercell.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

30 minutes of warning. NWS CLE issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:11 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:57 UTC and running to 02:15 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

Marion (MNN), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 124 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:41 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

4 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.