5/27/2019 Surprise Ohio Memorial Day Tornado Outbreak

[snowlover2]

Hard to believe it's been 4 years already since this unexpected night. It was forecast most of the day that the tornado threat was expected to be across N. IL/N. IN and then grow into an MCS as it crossed Ohio with a wind damage threat. HRRR runs initially showed this but by midday started showing more in the way of seperate supercells which caused the tornado probs to increase. SPC tornado probs show that the 2% area entered NW OH at 1630z, 5% was introduced across the northern half by 2000z, and then by 0100z 5% covered most of Ohio with a 10% hatched added into NW OH. 

Spoiler

By this point tornado warnings were out for parts of ILN's E. IN counties. Little did we know that was just the start of something much bigger. By 10pm Celina was under a tornado warning and a debris sig started to show up. Turned out to be an EF3 that killed an 82 year old man. Other tornado warnings started to pop up between Celina and I-70 over the next hour when the real show started to take shape close to 10:30pm. About 10:30pm a tornado warning was issued for the Dayton area initially has radar indicated. Velocity scans started to get scarier and scarier to the point it became obvious there was likely a strong tornado on the ground. By 10:50ish pm the warning was a PDS warning citing a large and dangerous confirmed tornado. Just 5-7 minutes later the words we've never heard around here, This is a TORNADO EMERGENCY!!! It was announced on TV and then both my phone and weather radio blew up. First time I really feared for my life from a tornado because 1) never been through one this close and 2) I knew it wouldn't take much of a SE turn to come right at me which it started to do. Luckily it stayed just a 1/2 mile north of me where it died out before cycling and dropping another strong tornado over Beavercreek with a continued tornado emergency. In the end a total of 19 tornadoes were confirmed by ILN.

The below link shows the 19 confirmed tornadoes from ILN as well as a 2+ hour video ILN made talking about the initial forecasts, the changes they were seeing before all hell broke loose, what happened at ILN during the event, damage surveys after, and comments from ILN employees and local mets throughout the vid. Great video to watch.

Tornado Outbreak - May 27-28, 2019 (weather.gov)

Next is the Wiki page that covers the whole sequence from May 17-30.

Tornado outbreak sequence of May 2019 - Wikipedia

This is the 8 hour video of coverage from Channel 7 with McCall Vrydaghs who is joined later on by Dontae Jones. McCall did an amazing job this night even fighting through the emotions getting to her. It's ironic that she just worked her last night tonight (5/26/23) as she said she accepted a new job that she just couldn't pass on. 

@ClicheVortex2014 who lived in SW Ohio during this had some radar screenshots oh the EF4 has it crossed the Dayton area. Please add if you still have them. This will always be a night those of us in SW Ohio will never ever forget.

[ClicheVortex2014]

First and hopefully last time I was in a tornado emergency (probably not though)

 Near the tornado's peak intensity. There I am just to the south of Dayton, slightly out of the warning but in the same county.

The size and definition of the supercell was crazy.

Little bit of lightning with the monster

 

ILN's breakdown of the event is 2 hours long... not surprising given the scope of the event. One of the presenters of this video is a Bobcat and taught one of my labs.

 

Edited May 27, 2023 by ClicheVortex2014

[snowlover2]

Today 5/27 is the 5 year anniversary of this event. Still remember it like it was yesterday.