EF2 Tornado — Ottawa, Ohio

2023-06-15 · near Strongs Ridge, Ottawa, Ohio

Event narrative

A tornado began about three miles south of Oak Harbor and tracked east-northeastward before ending about three miles east-southeast of Oak Harbor. Five homes were damaged along the tornado's path and several of these homes lost their roofs. The tornado also destroyed seven barns and ten cattle fatalities were reported. This tornado received a peak rating of EF2 with estimated peak winds of 130 mph.

Wider weather episode

A cold front moved into northwest Ohio the evening of Thursday, June 15. A weak surface low pressure developed along this front over southern Michigan earlier in the day and moved southeast across the western tip of Lake Erie during the evening. A warm front extended southeast of this low pressure along the western Lake Erie shoreline and then down towards central Ohio. Thunderstorms erupted along the cold front near Toledo just before 6:00 PM and moved southeast towards east-central Ohio over the coming hours. Enhanced vertical wind shear associated with the low pressure and warm front allowed storms to rotate amidst an unstable environment. A particularly intense supercell (rotating thunderstorm) developed near the Ohio/Michigan border just north of Toledo and tracked across parts of Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky, Erie, Huron, Seneca, Richland, Ashland, and Wayne Counties. This supercell was responsible for nine tornadoes and numerous instances of large hail, with hail to at least the size of tennis balls reported near Toledo and multiple reports of hail to golf ball sized or larger as the storm continued southeast. Heavy rainfall from this supercell also produced flash flooding across Huron County. Storms gradually congealed into a line that produced some hail and straight-line convective wind damage into east central Ohio.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.4688, -83.1457)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1119909. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.