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EF2 tornado in Huron County, Ohio

Tornado June 15, 2023 · Huron County, Ohio

EF2
Rating
17.3 mi
Whole path
2,200 yd
Path width
$435K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Huron County → Huron County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 2,200 yards (1.25 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This tornado began about two miles south of Monroeville, near Townline Road 198 and Sand Hill Road, where trees were damaged. The tornado moved southeastward, damaged additional trees, and caused EF0 to EF1-level damage to two barns and outbuildings. The greatest damage from the tornado occurred in vicinity of Snyder Road and Peru Center Road. This is where several residences sustained EF1 to EF2-level damage and the tornado's estimated peak winds reached 115 mph. A piece of slate roofing was lifted off a building north of Snyder Road and impaled a tree to the southeast. An outbuilding was destroyed completely and material from this structure was lofted a quarter mile southeast into a residence before eventually settling into a tree line. About ten buildings in total sustained damage, including one residence that was shifted off its foundation.

Damage to additional trees and outbuildings occurred as the tornado persisted farther southeastward across Peru Center Road, toward Townline Road 131 and OH-61. As the tornado reached Hanville Corners Road and Townline Road 113, several outbuildings and silos were damaged heavily with twisted debris lofted in various directions. The tornado continued farther southeast toward OH-162 and Ridge Road, where it caused heavy damage to a barn before the tornado dissipated west of the village of North Fairfield.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Monroeville (41.2172, -82.7036).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

9 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1119913. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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