Overview
| On Tuesday, August 11, 2026, the Ohio Valley was impacted by a widespread, significant severe weather outbreak. Several rounds of intense storms moved through the region during the daytime, bringing large-scale severe to locally destructive winds. Within both lines of storms, multiple weak, short-lived tornadoes occurred. |
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Round 1: During the early morning hours on Tuesday, a line of thunderstorms formed across central Indiana, progressing quickly to the Ohio-Indiana stateline by daybreak. The line of storms gradually intensified after sunrise as it shifted to the southeast into an area of more unstable air in place from western Ohio to southern Ohio. Sporadic wind damage was observed as the storms tracked into far eastern Indiana and western Ohio, continuing to organize and intensify as they approached the I-75 corridor in west-central Ohio. As the line of storms moved east of I-75, several quick moving tornadoes developed within the line and impacted portions of the northern Miami Valley into central Ohio toward mid-morning, including in Champaign, Clark, Madison, and Franklin Counties. Along with the isolated tornadoes, large swaths of intense straight-line winds resulted in widespread damage within this corridor. The majority of the tornadoes were on the ground for only a few minutes, but the damaging straight-line winds occurred throughout the entire event. Due to the widespread damage and periods of significant flash flooding that would follow, highly confident tornado confirmations would require the combination of radar, damage surveys, satellite observations, and various video recordings. The line of storms tracked to the east-southeast into south-central Ohio, exiting the local area by the late morning. In the Columbus area, the most widespread damage was observed within the Upper Arlington, Hilliard, Dublin, and Reynoldsburg areas. The Ohio State University Airport measured a wind gust of 70 mph and the John Glenn Columbus International Airport (KCMH) measured a wind gust of 82 MPH with the morning round of activity. Overall, this event was focused near and just north of the I-70 corridor from east of Dayton through the Columbus metro area and further east into parts of east-central Ohio. The majority of the damage in these areas, even those where tornadoes developed, was caused by intense widespread straight-line winds on the order of 60- 80 mph with isolated portions reaching up to 90-100 MPH. |
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Round 2: Shortly after the departure of the initial activity, another line of storms was already underway across parts of northern Illinois and Indiana. Despite the rain-cooled environment across large parts of the local area following the morning round, rising temperatures began to spread quickly to the northeast by the early afternoon. The environment in portions of the area from east-central Indiana, the Tri-State, into northern Kentucky became extremely unstable, providing a supportive environment for another episode of widespread severe, destructive winds along with several tornadoes. When compared to the morning round of activity, this second round focused farther to the southwest, impacting large parts of the area from near Dayton to Wilmington to Portsmouth and the greater Tri-State region. The line of storms progressed to the southeast from Indiana into the local area, intensifying and organizing into early afternoon as it tracked to the southeast. In southwest Ohio, the most widespread damage was observed within Clermont, Brown, Highland, and Adams counties. The Cincinnati Luken Field Airport (KLUK) observed a wind gust of 68 mph, and the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport (KCVG) observed a wind gust of 59 mph. Once again, the majority of the damage in these areas, even those where tornadoes developed, was caused by intense widespread straight-line winds on the order of 60-90 MPH through much of the Tri-State into far southern Ohio. This can happen within organized storm systems, similar to the event on April 8, 2020, wherein numerous tornadoes developed within an organized storm system that was also producing destructive straight-line winds. This second round of storms was officially classified as a derecho by the Storm Prediction Center. |
Tornadoes
Select a tornado from the table to zoom into the track and view more information. The default table view is limited to 8 tracks, but can be scrolled by a mouse wheel or dynamically expanded. Additionally, the table can fill the entire window by clicking the small circular expanding arrow icon at the very top right of the table and returned to its original size by clicking the button again. The side information panel that opens over the map can be closed using the "X" on the upper right corner of the pop-up. Zoom into the map and click damage points to see detailed information and pictures from the surveys.
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NOTE: times shown below are local to your device's time zone. |
The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories:
| EF0 Weak 65-85 mph |
EF1 Moderate 86-110 mph |
EF2 Significant 111-135 mph |
EF3 Severe 136-165 mph |
EF4 Extreme 166-200 mph |
EF5 Catastrophic 200+ mph |
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| Tornadoes that fail to impact any ratable damage indicators on the EF-Scale are rated EF-Unknown (EF-U) | |||||
Storm Reports
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