EF1 tornado in Muskingum County, Ohio

An NWS damage survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado with peak wind

speeds of 90 mph on the evening of April 2nd, 2024. The length of

the tornado was about 8.25 miles, with an estimated max width of

75 yards.

The path began north of Zanesville at the Parr Airport where a

hangar collapsed and tied-down aircraft were shifted. Across the

road from the airport, a portion of the roof was blown off a barn

and pieces were blown into the neighboring yard. Additionally,

several hardwood trees were snapped. The tornado continued

intermittently on the ground for another eight miles. Just a

quarter mile east on Dresden Road, another swath of hardwood trees

were snapped.

The second area of damage as the tornado likely lifted and

descended again farther east along Fairview Road where another

area of small tree trunks were snapped and a couple uprooted. Just

to the east and about 230 yards north of Fairview Road, numerous

softwood trees were snapped and uprooted. A small shed was also

destroyed and tossed a couple hundred yards to the east. This area

of damage had the strongest winds of 90 mph. Additional EF-0

damage was noted along North River Road where a roof was lifted

off a single-wide manufactured home. The tornado then briefly

lifted as it crossed the Muskingum River.

The tornado descended again and damage resumed along Church Hill

Road where several hardwood trees were snapped and uprooted along

with roof damage to a barn. Farther to the east along Adamsville

Road, a larger swath of softwood trees were snapped and uprooted

with EF-1 damage observed and winds estimated at 88 mph. Farther

to the east, another two locations of damage were noted with

hardwood trees snapped and uprooted along Piper Road and again on

Knipe road where a home also suffered partial roof loss.

Several rounds of showers and thunderstorms prompted a widespread flash flood problems across the Ohio River Valley on April 2nd to April 3rd. The synoptic pattern across the CONUS was a slow moving and deep elongated trough over the Great Plains phasing with a ejecting trough over the Midwest that created an area of converging moisture over eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Overall, over a span of 4 days, four to five an half inches of rain fell across the region. Not only was small tributaries impact, but the main river reached moderate flood stage.

Along with flooding, there was a brief period of severe storms that tracked along eastern Ohio on the evening of April 2nd. A number of tornadoes touched down and were surveyed. Special soundings released by PBZ and ILN depict effective instability over eastern Ohio (1200J/kg to 1700J/kg), effective low-level shear (+50kts), and low-level helicity (300m2/s2) for rotating updrafts just before storms tracked through the area.