Thunderstorm Wind in Portage County, Ohio

Tree downed about two-miles northeast of Brimfield.

At the surface, a low wobbled southeastward from the northwestern Great Lakes to southern Lake Huron during the early evening of the 16th through early evening of the 17th. Simultaneously, the attendant warm front moved northeastward from northern Lake Michigan and central Lake Erie to near the northern shore of Lake Ontario and Upper St. Lawrence River Valley, while the trailing cold front moved eastward from the Upper Mississippi River Valley to central Lake Erie and north-central OH.

Within the warm and moist sector, a cluster of multicell thunderstorms persisted eastward across far-northeast OH and generated isolated straight-line convective wind damage in northern Ashtabula County during the early evening of the 16th. The ambient environment exhibited modest MLCAPE of 500-1000 J/kg, modest effective bulk shear of 20-25 knots, and modestly-steep low-level lapse rates near 7C/km.

During the afternoon through early evening of the 17th, additional multicell thunderstorms developed and persisted northeastward or eastward across north-central and northeast OH, along and ahead of the cold front. These storms generated isolated severe hail and scattered straight-line convective wind damage. Despite modest MLCAPE of 750-1000 J/kg and effective bulk shear near 25 knots, strong convective wind gusts were aided by a corridor of steep low-level lapse rates of 7.5-8C/km. Torrential rainfall was observed in several locations, with flash flooding reported in and near Ravenna where slow storm motions and repeated thunderstorms impacted the area. Precipitable water values of 1.6-1.75 inches resided in the warm and moist sector.