Posted on by Ron Rothhaas

Memorial Day 2019 Ohio tornado outbreak is the highest one day tornado total in Ohio history, but not the most intense.

Memorial Day, May 27, 2019, and the early morning hours of the 28th, was an historic 24 hour period in Ohio. After sunset and overnight, 20 separate tornadoes hit the state including one rated EF4 and 3 rated EF3. That is more tornadoes in one 24 hour period than has ever been recorded in Ohio in a single 24 hour period. That makes it the largest tornado outbreak in Ohio history, but not the most intense or the deadliest.

That distinction still belongs to April 3, 1974. On that day, 14 tornadoes tore across Ohio. However, of those 14, two were rated F5 on the Fujita scale of tornado intensity. Only 3 F5 tornadoes have ever been recorded in Ohio and two occurred on that one day, one wiping out a large part of Xenia, Ohio, and the other tearing a path across the west side of Cincinnati from Sayler Park north through Green Township.

The F scale has been adjusted since 1974 to take into account engineering of structures damaged or destroyed so a one to one comparison to the current scale is not possible. However, the 1974 outbreak was investigated and categorized by Dr. Theodore Fujita himself so the classifications were as accurate as possible at the time.

Due to very timely warnings and good lead times by the Wilmington, Ohio office of the National Weather Service, only one fatality has been confirmed thus far in the 2019 outbreak. In contrast in 1974, according to the Wilmington, Ohio, office of the National Weather Service, “Two violent F5 tornadoes destroyed much of Xenia and Sayler Park (a western suburb of Cincinnati) in Ohio. Resulting in 34 deaths, the Xenia tornado was the deadliest of all tornadoes from this outbreak and remains among the top 10 costliest U.S. tornadoes on record (approximately $250 million in 1974). Several other strong F2 to F4 tornadoes also touched down during the Super Outbreak across southeast Indiana, northern Kentucky, and southwest Ohio, an area that today encompasses NWS Wilmington, Ohio’s warning area.”

For more information on the 2019 outbreak, including updates regarding ongoing damage surveys, click here>>>

May 27-28, 2019
Tornado Outbreak