EF1 Tornado — Cuyahoga, Ohio

2024-08-06 · near Brook Park, Cuyahoga, Ohio

Event narrative

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.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.3968, -81.8325)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1213168. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.