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EF2 tornado in Putnam County, Ohio

Tornado April 2, 2025 · Putnam County, Ohio

EF2
Rating
4.7 mi
Whole path
375 yd
Path width
2
Injuries
$500K
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 375 yards (0.21 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

A second tornado spun up north of the decaying Van Wert tornado, touching down in far southeast Paulding County. The tornado severely damaged a pole barn as it moved into Putnam county. The tornado rapidly moved northeast, hitting a well anchored mobile homed and flipping it 60 feet away. Three occupants were in the mobile home and two of them sustained minor injuries. It is here that the tornado peaked at an EF-2 with an estimated wind speed of 120 mph. The tornado destroyed another well-anchored 60x120 ft pole barn, throwing its debris onto the bank of the Auglaize River. To the northeast, it directly hit the town of Dupont where it did widespread EF-0 to EF-1 damage throughout. The tornado damaged several large corn silos (one that was full of corn had the ground anchor bolts break from uplift). It is near here where the visible damage stopped.

The wider storm

The atmosphere was primed for severe weather during the afternoon and evening hours of April 2nd. 0-1 km SRH values of 300 to 500 m2/s2, 60 to 70 kts of shear and MLCAPE of around 1000 J/KG set the stage for numerous thunderstorms. Damage reports were not as widespread, but those that occurred tended to be in swaths related to cold pools from bowing segments or tornadoes. Eight tornadoes (three in northern Indiana, one which crossed from Indiana into Lower Michigan, one in lower Michigan and three in northwestern Ohio). A total of five injuries were reported (three in NW Ohio and two in N Indiana).

Began near Mandale (41.0290, -84.3420).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1247073. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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