The National Weather Service said an EF1 tornado touched down in south Columbus during severe thunderstorms on Tuesday morning, while separate damaging winds cut across Upper Arlington. The preliminary findings, released Thursday after a storm damage survey with Franklin County Emergency Management, point to two different wind events in the same storm system.
That matters because the survey gives the first official read on what happened as the storms moved through Columbus and Ohio on Aug. 11. In south Columbus, crews traced damage beginning near East Hinman Avenue and continuing east across Parsons Avenue, Barack Park and as far as Fairwood Avenue. Investigators said the damage there showed a convergent pattern consistent with a tornado, and the storm left structural damage, including roof damage to some homes and businesses.
In Upper Arlington, the picture was different. Survey crews examined damage near Upper Arlington High School and along Zollinger Road, then found some of the most significant tree damage just east of the school along Mount Holyoke Road, Wellesley Drive, Halstead Road, Pickwick Drive and North Star Road. Even with the heavy tree loss, meteorologists said there was no visible evidence of tornadic circulation or a convergent damage pattern there. They attributed the Upper Arlington damage to straight-line winds estimated at 90 to 100 mph, not a tornado.
That split is the key friction point in the survey: two hard-hit Columbus-area neighborhoods, but only one was judged to have been struck by a tornado. The south Columbus damage fit the EF1 rating, which the National Weather Service uses for tornadoes strong enough to cause moderate damage but not the kind of extreme destruction seen at higher levels. The Upper Arlington damage, by contrast, came from wind that pushed in one direction rather than rotating, even though it still packed enough force to reach 100 mph.
The findings remain preliminary, and the final assessment is expected in the coming days. For now, the survey answers the central question about the tornado in Columbus, Ohio: south Columbus took the tornado hit, Upper Arlington did not, and the same storm system left behind two different kinds of damage across the city.
