EF0 tornado in Ashland County, Ohio

A weak EF0 tornado touched down west of Rowsburg near the intersection of County Roads 1302 and 251. The tornado continued east southeast for about a mile before dissipating on the north end of Rowsburg. The damage path indicates that the tornado was probably intermittent and at tree top level. A barn was toppled near the beginning of the damage path and a house in Rowsburg was also heavily damaged by fallen trees. The barn appears to have been toppled from a combination of tornadic and straight line winds. Five livestock animals were killed in the barn collapse with several more injured. Many trees were downed along the damage path and large swaths of corn were flattened. The damage path from the tornado was no more than 15 yards wide but damage from the accompanying straight line downburst winds was more than a half mile in width at times. The damage path was a little over a mile in length.

A hot and humid airmass over the Ohio Valley was broken up on the 10th by a shortwave trough and a surface cold front that came moved through during the afternoon hours. Storms developed ahead of the cold front around noon, and ended with the exit of the cold front through northwest Pennsylvania around 7 pm. The humid and unstable airmass supported intense rainfall rates verified with reports of 0.75 in 15 minutes. These storms moved over an area that was already saturated from weeks of hit and miss storms and floods, and could not support the additional runoff produced during this event. The result was widespread flash flooding as the storms affected every county in the WFO Cleveland county warning area.

In addition to the flooding, widespread severe weather including three tornadoes occurred on July 10th. A line of intense thunderstorms developed ahead of the advancing cold front during the afternoon hours. Thunderstorm wind gusts in excess of 70 mph were reported. Seneca and Sandusky Counties in north central Ohio were especially hard hit. Thousands of downed trees and widespread power outages were reported. The Bellevue area was especially hard by the combination of straight line winds and a weak tornado. Nearly every street in the city had damage of some sort and it took five days for power to be restored to the majority of the city. Another tornado formed in northeastern Seneca County and moved in Huron County. A third tornado affected portions of rural Ashland County. Large swaths of corn were flattened across northern Ohio and nearly every county reported severe weather. As many as 250,000 electric customers lost power during this evening.