EF0 tornado, Guernsey County, Ohio, September 9, 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

September 9, 2026

Touchdown

9:34 PM EDT (01:34 UTC)

Lifted

9:37 PM EDT (01:37 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Guernsey County

Touchdown point

40.006, -81.671

Lift-off point

40.004, -81.649

Highest wind the damage implies

85 mph

Surveyed by

NWS PBZ

The office's name for it

Gurn

Survey last edited

September 11, 2026

Record number

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

A linear convective storm complex moved into Muskingum and Guernsey Counties at 9:00pm on the night of September 9th, 2026. A portion of this line bowed, and on the northern fringe of this segment, a embedded mesocyclone developed overhead with broad rotation which extended to the surface. A tornado touchdown was estimated from radar to be 9:34pm, immediately knocking down a tree and impacting a couple residences at the intersection of Mayfield Lane and US-22. This was where winds were the strongest, up to 85mph. The most destruction was observed near a small business, where wind entered the building through the roof and blew out a backdoor, as well as knocking an old steeple off of the roof. This wind also may have briefly lifted a trailer and displaced it roughly 10 ft away. Some of the debris from the blow-out impacted a neighboring property's fence and front yard. The adjacent property also observed damage to siding and gutters. A small sign was knocked down across US-22 where the tornado is estimated to have weakened as it moved into a swampy area along Crooked Creek. Minor tree damage was observed along I-70. A couple trees were down along Savage Road before the circulation is expected to have lifted at 9:37pm. Minor tree damage was observed downstream, but damage was more consistent with straight line winds as the bowing convective segment continued it's track into Byesville.

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

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS PBZ, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 83 mph.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:03 UTC and running to 02:45 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. The outlook in force was issued at 00:40 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 Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 136 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:34 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

1 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.