Thunderstorm Wind — Athens, Ohio

2010-09-16 · near Floodwood, Athens, Ohio

Event narrative

The upstream tornado lifted, as the rear flank downdraft of the rotating thunderstorm took over. This downburst became the dominant feature in The Plains and around the community of Athens. The width of the damage path widened to about a quarter of a mile. Winds were estimated as high as 100 mph in The Plains. As the storm approached, soccer players, fans, coaches, and referees took shelter in the locker rooms, the wrestling rooms, and the lounge for teachers at Athens County High School. About a dozen adults took shelter in the concession stand. A few of these parents were injured when the roof was heavily damaged. The light poles, the press box, and the scoreboard were also damaged or destroyed. On the roof of the high school, large air condition units were blown off and damaged parked cars. Several homes were destroyed or damaged. Roof damage was widespread. As the wind reached the eastern sections of the town of Athens, the maximum wind gusts were estimated at 80 to 100 mph. The last significant damage was to an automobile service and towing garage. The total distance of this downburst was on the order of 10 miles. A total of 6 people were injured. About 17 homes were destroyed, many others were damaged.

Including both this downburst and the tornado, Ohio Emergency Managment Agency categorized around 30 homes as destroyed, 51 homes with major damage, and 83 homes with minor damage.

Wider weather episode

A cold front, in tandem with strong mid and upper level forcing, produced a severe weather outbreak in southeast Ohio into extreme western West Virginia during the late afternoon and evening of Thursday the 16th. The setup featured a 45 knot mid level flow and a 95 knot upper level jet. Matter of fact, a larger area of showers, associated with a warm front, had moved across southeast Ohio and West Virginia during the morning and midday hours. This kept the surface based instability at a minimum. However, new cells formed further west during the mid afternoon over western Ohio. It was this new cluster of convection that would intensify due to the strong mid and upper level dynamics. Several of the new cells formed and intensified on the southern or southwestern flank of the overall larger area of showers and thunderstorms. This area of convection stretched further to the northeast into eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. This allowed an unimpeded low level moisture inflow into the new development. Surface dew points ahead of the cold front reached into the mid 60s.

Most of the severe thunderstorms exhibited strong rotation, resulting in the spawning of 5 tornadoes. Four of these 5 tornadoes were in Ohio. One of the 4 Ohio tornadoes crossed from Fairfield County into western Perry County. Another 1 of the 4 crossed from Perry into northwestern Morgan County. One tornado patch was solely in western Athens County. The damage continued another 10 miles in Athens County from a strong rear flank downdraft. Finally, the last of the 4 tornadoes in Ohio crossed the Ohio River from northeastern Meigs County into southern Wood County in West Virginia. From storm surveys, this was the strongest tornado. The last tornado path in this outbreak was solely in western West Virginia. Luckily, there were no fatalities in southeastern Ohio. However, there was one death on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.3872, -82.1872)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 255597. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.