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EF3 tornado in Greene County, Ohio

Tornado May 27, 2019 · Greene County, Ohio

EF3
Rating
28.1 mi
Whole path
1,230 yd
Path width
1
Death
166
Injuries
$550.5M
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,230 yards (0.70 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

The tornado first touched down in Riverside in far eastern Montgomery County at 2212EST before quickly moving into western Greene County at 2213EST. The tornado continued to move east across western and central Greene County before lifting along U.S. 68, about 5 miles north of Xenia.

There were two locations along the track of this tornado in the Beavercreek area where damage was indicative of EF3 intensity. The first was in the vicinity of I-675 and Grange Hall Road. Several homes along Rushton Drive had entire roofs lifted, as well as the collapse of several exterior walls with only interior walls left standing. Additional homes along Gardenview and Wendover Drives experienced high-end EF2 damage with windows shattered, garage doors collapsed and entire roof structures removed.

Additional EF3 damage occurred in Beavercreek near Anna Laura Lane. In this area, some buildings of an apartment complex had large sections of roofs removed and exterior walls on upper levels collapsed, leaving just interior walls standing.

Most of the damage from near Grange Hall road eastward to businesses near North Fairfield Road was EF2 to EF1 type damage, where some concrete block businesses had partially collapsed walls and roof lift off.

Much of the tornado path occurred from roughly 0.5 miles north of Kemp Road to within 0.1 miles south of Kemp Road, within the limits of Beavercreek. As the tornado moved east-southeast into Beavercreek township, the damage became more consistent with EF0, to occasionally lower-end EF1, damage. This included damage along Fairground, Beaver Valley and Ludlow Roads. The tornado damage ended just to the east of U.S. 68 in Xenia Township, where roof and tree damage occurred just north of Clifton Road. This was also consistent with high-end EF0 to low-end EF1 damage.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms developed during the evening hours along a warm front lifting slowly north across the region. Many of the thunderstorms produced tornadoes, including a few strong to violent tornadoes.

Began near New Germany (39.7664, -84.0995).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 817480. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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