Middletown Tornado an EF1, Destroys Barn and Houses

BY ALLISON BABKA

The National Weather Service has confirmed it – the tornado-like weather event in Middletown that looked and acted like a tornado was, indeed, a tornado.

Gusty winds and clashing fronts brought several tornadoes to southwestern and central Ohio on Feb. 27, the National Weather Service said after an investigation. Residents in Middletown, Orient (near Columbus) and New Carlisle/Pike Township (near Springfield) reported seeing funnel clouds in those areas, but the NWS outpost in Wilmington said it needed to review damage and other factors before classifying the phenomena as tornadoes.

In its preliminary report, the NWS classified the Middletown tornado as an EF1 that touched down at Jacksonburg and Oxford Middletown roads at 2:37 p.m. Feb. 27. Over the course of six minutes and 4.2 miles, the tornado snapped trees, removed shingles and plywood from buildings, blew a roof off a house and leveled a barn, the NWS said. It reached a maximum of 110 MPH with its widest path at 150 yards.

The NWS said that Butler County's emergency management team assisted with the investigation in Middletown.

The New Carlisle tornado also was an EF1, reaching 90-95 MPH, the NWS said. That tornado traveled for just two minutes beginning at 3:19 p.m., but it uprooted trees, caused moderate roof damage to homes and destroyed a garage door over 2.3 miles.

The tornado in Orient wasn't quite as severe, with the NWS classifying it as an EF0 with winds reaching 85 MPH. It touched down at 4:03 p.m. and flipped two trailers, damaged some abandoned structures and lifted a garage roof. This tornado traveled for 1.4 miles, the agency reported.

Reports for all three tornadoes are posted to the NWS website.

In July, three tornadoes ripped through Brown and Clermont counties in Ohio, causing extensive damage and pushing Gov. Mike DeWine to declare a local state of emergency.

In December of 2021, Kentucky suffered dozens of deaths and millions of dollars worth of damages due to a series of tornadoes that raged for more than 200 miles.

The storm’s path

The National Weather Service began issuing alerts about possible severe weather for the Ohio/Indiana border on Feb. 26, saying that rain and thunder would occur the following morning with thunderstorms developing by evening. The NWS also said to expect strong winds and a tornado threat.

By morning on Feb. 27, the NWS warned more forcefully about "damaging winds and isolated tornadoes," showing a map of central Indiana as the region most ripe for severe weather. Around noon, the agency launched a weather balloon and said that eastcentral Ohio should expect storms to quickly move in.

By 1:30 p.m., Greater Cincinnati and all of southwestern and central Ohio –plus portions of Kentucky and Indiana – were under a tornado watch and/or a severe thunderstorm warning.

"The greatest severe threat is now extending from east-central IN into west-central OH and will move into the Miami Valley over the next hour or so. Be prepared to move to a lowerlevel/interior space should a warning be issued for your area!" the National Weather Service outpost in Wilmington tweeted at 2:20 p.m.

The NWS shared a photo of a tornado on the ground in Germantown, about 50 miles north of Cincinnati, at 3 p.m. Around that time, Alex Weineke, a relative of a CityBeat staff writer, provided a firsthand photo of what appeared to be a tornado near that area.

"Came through Middletown and went up towards Dayton," Weineke told CityBeat.

Tornado warnings continued for central west-central Ohio and the Columbus area throughout the afternoon and early evening.