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EF1 tornado in Cuyahoga County, Ohio

Tornado August 6, 2024 · Cuyahoga County, Ohio

EF1
Rating
28.8 mi
Whole path
350 yd
Path width
$2.1M
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 350 yards (0.20 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 had peak intensity of EF1, estimated peak winds of 104 mph, and travelled generally east-southeastward through southern portions of suburban Cleveland. The tornado began near Sylvia Drive in Brook Park, where scattered tree limbs were downed. Metal roofing was torn off a portion of the Brook Park Recreation Center. Extensive damage to trees was noted along the majority of the path with downed limbs, some twisted, and other trees snapped off at the trunk. Numerous trees landed on homes, cars, and downed power lines. A garage with metal siding collapsed near Carol Drive and Middlebrook Boulevard in Brook Park, where damage was also sustained to a neighbor's garage and most of the covered patio was destroyed. Numerous power poles were leaning or downed along West 130th Street. Tornado-related damage continued through Parma Heights and Parma where numerous power poles were leaning or downed in yards and onto homes along West Ridgewood Drive across from the Shoppes at Parma. The path of tree damage continued through Seven Hills, especially along Chestnut Road, with intermittent damage noted through Independence and east of the Cuyahoga River. Extensive tree damage was noted in Valley View along Stone Road, where several large trees were uprooted and some fell onto homes. Strips of siding were torn off many homes in this area and lofted. Some trees fell to the north and northwest along this portion of the tornado's path. The tornado continued into Bedford where another neighborhood experienced significant damage south of Turney Road. Trees were downed onto several homes and at least a portion of a roof was ripped off with damage to a chimney. A new shed that was secured strongly was destroyed. Splattering of debris was noted on homes. Several homes had areas with siding removed and thrown. The tornado continued through Bedford Reservation with damage noted on Union Street and into the Bedford Cemetery. Damage became intermittent before the tornado ended just east of I-480 and south of Solon Road.

The wider storm

Between about daybreak and nightfall on August 6th, a wavy surface cold front drifted generally southward from northern OH and near the NY/PA line to southern OH and the northern Mid-Atlantic states. This front separated a warm and humid air mass to its north from a warmer and more-humid air mass to its south. A line of multicell thunderstorms persisted southeastward across Mahoning County during the early afternoon and produced localized straight-line convective wind damage. During the late afternoon through early evening, a line of multicell thunderstorms moving eastward across northwest OH merged with a separate line of multicell thunderstorms moving southeastward across western and central Lake Erie. These lines merged to form a more-extensive QLCS that persisted southward and eastward across northern OH. Ahead of these storms, additional multicells and a few transient supercells developed in northeast OH.

All of these storms occurred amidst weak to moderate MUCAPE and moderate to strong effective bulk shear. Extensive straight-line convective wind damage occurred in northern OH, especially northeast OH, as storms also encountered moderate DCAPE and steep low-level lapse rates. The QLCS also produced five mesovortex-related tornadoes amidst large surface-based ESRH of at least 150 meters squared per second squared and favorable mixed-layer LCL's less than 1k meters AGL.

Began near Brook Park (41.3968, -81.8325).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1213168. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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