EF1 tornado in Muskingum County, Ohio

An NWS damage survey confirmed that an EF-1 tornado, with winds

peaking near 105 mph, tracked through southeastern Muskingum

County on the evening of April 2, 2024. The length was about 0.59

miles with an estimated max width of 150 yards.

Tree damage was first observed just south of Coon Ridge Road and

Wonderland Road inside the Blue Rock State Forest. The tornado

continued north where it crossed Coon Ridge Road, entered a field,

and resulted in the loss of metal roofing panels of a barn. It

then re-entered the forest, making a turn to the northeast before

causing a sizable blowdown of snapped and uprooted trees in a

ravine. This is where peak intensity and maximum width were

reached. The tornado then quickly lifted before just before

crossing Coon Ridge Road.

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.