(6-20-21) The National Weather Service in Wilmington released an update on Friday’s tornado that hit Ft. Recovery. The report confirms it is aEF2 tornado.

EF2 Tornado

An EF2 tornado is the third weakest tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. An EF2 will have wind speeds between 111 and 135 mph (178 and 217 km/h). The damage from an EF2 tornado will be considerable. On the now retired Fujita Scale, the tornado damage scale that the Enhanced Fujita Scale replaced, an EF2 tornado use to be an F2 tornado. An F2 tornado had wind speeds between 113 and 157 mph (181 and 253 km/h).

An EF2 tornado, the third weakest tornado on the Enhanced Fujita scale, will cause considerable damage. EF2 wind speeds can tear the roof off well-constructed homes. Frame homes can be shifted off their foundation. Mobile homes will be destroyed. Large trees can be uprooted and be snapped in half. Vehicles can be lifted off the ground and smaller objects will become missiles.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON OH
1020 PM EDT SAT JUN 19 2021

...EF2 TORNADO CONFIRMED NEAR FORT RECOVERY IN MERCER COUNTY OHIO 
ON JUNE 18, 2021...

LOCATION...NEAR FORT RECOVERY IN MERCER COUNTY OHIO 
DATE...JUNE 18, 2021 
ESTIMATED STARTING TIME...4:12 PM EDT 
ESTIMATED ENDING TIME...4:25 PM EDT 
MAXIMUM EF- SCALE RATING...EF2 
ESTIMATED MAXIMUM WIND SPEED...115 MPH 
MAXIMUM PATH WIDTH...200 YARDS 
PATH LENGTH...5.7 MILES 
BEGINNING LAT/LON...40.4327N/ 84.7917W 
ENDING LAT/LON...40.3815N/ 84.7092W
* FATALITIES...0
* INJURIES...0

...SUMMARY...
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE, WITH THE ASSISTANCE AND SUPPORT
FROM THE MERCER COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY AND THE FORT
RECOVERY FIRE DEPARTMENT, CONFIRMS AN EF2 TORNADO NEAR FORT 
RECOVERY OHIO ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON JUNE 18, 2021. 

THE FIRST SIGN OF TORNADIC DAMAGE WAS OBSERVED JUST EAST OF THE
INDIANA/OHIO STATE LINE. TREES WERE SNAPPED ALONG PARK ROAD,
INDICATIVE OF EF0 TORNADO DAMAGE. THE TORNADO THEN MOVED 
SOUTHEAST, AND MAY HAVE BRIEFLY LIFTED, BEFORE TOUCHING BACK DOWN 
AND LEAVING A NOTICEABLE SWIRL IN A WHEAT FIELD BETWEEN ST JOE 
ROAD AND WABASH ROAD. THE TORNADO INTENSIFIED AS IT MOVED ACROSS 
WABASH ROAD, IMPACTING THE FORT RECOVERY LUMBER YARD. MULTIPLE 
ROOFS WERE COMPLETELY LIFTED OFF SEVERAL OUTBUILDINGS. 
ADDITIONALLY, A COLLAPSED CINDER BLOCK WALL WAS OBSERVED AT THE 
FORT RECOVERY LUMBER YARD. THIS WAS CONSISTENT WITH EF1 DAMAGE. 
THE TORNADO THEN CONTINUED MOVING SOUTHEAST THROUGH WOODED AREAS 
BETWEEN WABASH ROAD AND FORT RECOVERY-MINSTER ROAD. HARDWOOD TREE 
DAMAGE WAS NOTED IN THE WOODED AREAS.

AFTER CROSSING FORT RECOVERY-MINSTER ROAD, PARTIAL REMOVAL OF AN
OUTBUILDING ROOF WAS NOTED ALONG WITH TREE DAMAGE. MORE 
SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE THEN BECAME APPARENT AS THE TORNADO CONTINUED 
SOUTHEAST IMPACTING THE BURRVILLE ROAD/HART ROAD AREA. MULTIPLE 
HOMES ALONG BURRVILLE ROAD SUSTAINED SUBSTANTIAL ROOF DAMAGE
INCLUDING TOTAL REMOVAL OF OVER HALF THE ROOF OF A SINGLE FAMILY 
HOME. THE SURVEY TEAM ALSO NOTED COMPLETELY DESTROYED 
OUTBUILDINGS, THE REMOVAL OF ATTACHED GARAGES, SUBSTANTIAL TREE 
DAMAGE, AND PROJECTILES EMBEDDED WITHIN AN EXTERIOR WALL. 
SEVERAL WOOD POWER POLES ALONG BURRVILLE ROAD WERE ALSO 
COMPLETELY BROKEN. DEBRIS FROM BURRVILLE ROAD WAS THROWN 
APPROXIMATELY A HALF MILE TOWARD WOURMS ROAD. IN ADDITION, THE 
TORNADO PRODUCED DAMAGE ALONG WOURMS ROAD, WHICH INCLUDED MORE 
BROKEN WOOD POWER POLES. THE WOODED AREA ALONG WOURMS ROAD ALSO 
EXHIBITED THE MOST SIGNIFICANT TREE DAMAGE, WHERE NUMEROUS 
HARDWOOD TREES WERE SNAPPED OR KNOCKED OVER. DAMAGE ALONG BURRVILLE
ROAD AND WOURMS ROAD WAS CONSISTENT WITH LOW END EF2 DAMAGE, WITH
MAXIMUM WINDS OF AROUND 115 MPH. 

THE TORNADO SEEMED TO RAPIDLY WEAKEN AS IT MOVED SOUTHEAST TO FOX
ROAD AND MEIRING ROAD. THE ONLY DAMAGE SEEN WAS MINOR DAMAGE TO 
AN OUTBUILDING AND PARTIAL REMOVAL OF THE TOP OF A SILO. NO 
ADDITIONAL DAMAGE WAS OBSERVED TO THE SOUTHEAST OF THIS AREA. 

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN WILMINGTON THANKS THE MERCER COUNTY OHIO 
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY AND THE FORT RECOVERY FIRE DEPARTMENT FOR THE 
ASSISTANCE WITH THIS STORM DAMAGE SURVEY. 

EF SCALE: THE ENHANCED FUJITA SCALE CLASSIFIES TORNADOES INTO THE
FOLLOWING CATEGORIES:

EF0...WEAK......65 TO 85 MPH
EF1...WEAK......86 TO 110 MPH
EF2...STRONG....111 TO 135 MPH
EF3...STRONG....136 TO 165 MPH
EF4...VIOLENT...166 TO 200 MPH
EF5...VIOLENT...>200 MPH

* THE INFORMATION IN THIS STATEMENT IS PRELIMINARY AND SUBJECT TO
CHANGE PENDING FINAL REVIEW OF THE EVENT AND PUBLICATION IN NWS
STORM DATA.