EF2 Tornado — Huron, Ohio

2023-06-15 · near Monroeville, Huron, Ohio

Event narrative

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.

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 → (41.2172, -82.7036)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1119913. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.