EF0 tornado in Morgan County, Ohio

The tornado that touch downed in eastern Perry County continued into western Morgan County, before dissipating. There were several downed trees and large branches along McKinley Street. Three houses had minor damage and one vehicle was destroyed. Electricity was out for over 24 hours.

Since 1950, this is the first confirmed tornado in Morgan County. However, prior to 1950, one tornado was reported in Morgan County back in June of 1928.

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.