High Wind — Richland, Ohio

2009-02-11 to 2009-02-12 · Richland, Ohio

Event narrative

A strong cold front moved east across Richland County during the evening of February 11th. Damaging west to southwest winds developed behind the front late in the evening. A peak wind gust of 64 mph was measured by an automated sensor at Mansfield Lahm Airport at 1159 pm. Earlier in the evening, a 66 mph gust was measured at the airport when a line of showers and thunderstorms moved across the county. A gust of 63 mph was measured at 10:19 pm with a 60 mph gust measured at 11:13 pm. Winds finally diminished toward daybreak on the 12th. Ten cars of a moving train were derailed around 11:15 pm. This occurred about halfway between Shiloh and Shelby. No injuries occurred. The strong winds also overturned a semi truck on State Route 13 near Shenandoah around midnight. A second semi truck was overturned in a parking lot in Ontario. A lot of damage was reported across the county with hundreds of trees and power poles toppled. Thousands of people lost power during this event. At one time, more than 25,000 customers were without power in Richland and Ashland Counties. Hundreds of homes in the county sustained damage. Most of this damage was from lost shingles but many homes also lost gutters and sections of siding. A vacant school building in Epworth lost it's entire roof. A couple of the school districts in the county had to delay the start of school because of power outages.

Wider weather episode

A strong area of low pressure tracked northeast from the lower Mississippi Valley through the central Great Lakes on February 11th. Showers and thunderstorms developed across the region during the evening hours of the 11th. Some of the thunderstorms became severe. Additional damage was caused by strong winds behind the cold front. Thousands of trees were downed and hundreds of homes and buildings damaged by the strong winds behind the front. Most of the home damage was from lost shingles, but many homes also lost siding or gutters. Even a few broken windows were reported. A few homes also sustained significant damage from fallen trees. Tens of thousands of people lost power during this event. The power outages forced many school districts to delay or cancel classes on the 12th.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 155244. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.