The National Weather Service suspects a tornado moved through Dublin and reached Ohio State University in Franklin County about 10:30 a.m. Aug. 11, leaving behind damage that included overturned cars, structural damage and downed trees. Surveyors had not yet been able to confirm it by sight because more storms were expected later in the day.
The search for confirmation matters now because the storm did not stay in one place. Winds were recorded at 82 mph at John Glenn International Airport and 52 mph at Ohio State University Airport, and the weather service said it was aware of damage across the area even though it could not yet verify the tornado itself.
That uncertainty is the whole story for now. The weather service did not issue a warning for Columbus at the time because radar did not show clear enough signs of a tornado, even as it did issue a warning in nearby Madison County. In other words, the damage is visible, the path is suspected and the official confirmation is still waiting on a survey.
That survey is now the next step. Storms were expected to pick back up at 3 p.m. Aug. 11, which kept investigators away from the site and pushed any check of whether the tornado actually occurred to Aug. 12 or Aug. 13. Until then, the event remains a suspected tornado rather than a confirmed one — a distinction that matters when the wind has already scattered cars and trees across central Ohio.
Lilli Malone reported this story for The Columbus Dispatch.
