Beavercreek tornado (Dayton, Kettering, Kent: apartment, law school, live)

[CarpathianPeasant]

Originally Posted by blue j

I work south of town but I live in Beavercreek, and I was heading north on 675, on my usual commute home...passing through at the Kettering/Indian Ripple exit at about 5:30, all three northbound lanes came to a stop. I thought it was because of an accident or something. And then when I got up over the little slope where the overpass is, I noticed that up ahead, all three southbound lanes were also all backed up. But there was no accident. I didn't know what was going on...there were a few little tree branches and leaves on the road, but it didn't look like anything more than a nasty thunderstorm had passed through, maybe. I didn't find out until I got home an was watching the local news that it was a bigger deal than that (and even then it was very early on, and we didn't have the hindsight about it that we have even right now, because of course it had just happened, relatively speaking).

If I had passed through there about fifteen minutes earlier, it might have run right into me!



This is my first post here...nice to see a few people I recognize already, from the now-defunct DHBO message board. I look forward to participating more, too.

Hello, blue j,

Nice to see you. It ain't the same, but hang around a little. You might like it. Visit the Cincinnati room, too. Many here do.

[blue j]

Thanks, RG. I believe it was you who led me here.

[IDtheftV]

I saw the 'footage' on the local news in Billings, Montana.

Originally Posted by dxdtdemon

I'm surprised, too. Apparently there were only two people injured. You would think that with the lack of warning that some of the cars that were overturned would've had people in them.

Have you got a cite for "overturned" cars? The news reports I saw said "damaged vehicles" not overturned vehicles. There is no way that tornado could have turned a car over.

[IDtheftV]

Originally Posted by ohio_peasant

It was NOT a tornado, but it was a localized region of high circulation, made visible by the driving rain.

In Phoenix, Dust-Devils are pretty common in the summer. It's interesting, that when they pass across a field or dusty road, they become quite visible, but when they cross an area without 'stuff' to swirl around, they become almost invisible.

When you see one coming, you can run into the path on purpose and get tossed around by them.

I wouldn't be surprised if a strong one could pick you up off the ground since I have driven into them before where the car was severely shaken by the Dust-Devil.

Sometimes, you can be driving down the highway and see six or seven out in the desert in an area of 2-3 square miles. They extend well over a couple thousand feet into the air - big brown tubes.

A big Dust-Devil is probably the same as an EF-1 tornado since they are comparable in size to the one in the Greene picture and, having stood in the path of one, I can say that the windspeed was easily over 100 mph. Had my interaction with the funnel wall lasted more than a fraction of a second, I would have been knocked down hard.

[dxdtdemon]

Originally Posted by IDtheftV

I saw the 'footage' on the local news in Billings, Montana.Have you got a cite for "overturned" cars? The news reports I saw said "damaged vehicles" not overturned vehicles. There is no way that tornado could have turned a car over.

NWS confirms tornado touchdown in Beavercreek | WDTN

[luv my dayton]

Originally Posted by CarpathianPeasant

Hello, blue j,

Nice to see you. It ain't the same, but hang around a little. You might like it. Visit the Cincinnati room, too. Many here do.

Went and did a drive bye yesterday and was surprised to find it was open and full of customers. That area has been unlucky several times over the decades and the colony apartments got hit another time. Other business closed and cordoned off. Have seen the videos on TV with All Broker and other networks reporting. Just now saw it on the Weather channel. Glad to see you Blue j as we lost a great website and one another.

[IDtheftV]

Originally Posted by dxdtdemon

NWS confirms tornado touchdown in Beavercreek | WDTN

In your cite, they said that they have not yet rated the tornado, but in the first report it said it was an EF1.

EF2 tornados can push around cars, but it takes an EF3 to overturn cars like that video showed. Now it makes sense. ( EF4 will actually throw cars around ). EF3 is also consistent with that damaged brickwork.

Looking at it further, the cars were overturned after the funnel left the camera field. It crossed the road, gained strength and then turned the cars over on the N side. The amount of stuff flying through the air must have been horrible.

[blue j]

Originally Posted by luv my dayton

Went and did a drive bye yesterday and was surprised to find it was open and full of customers. That area has been unlucky several times over the decades and the colony apartments got hit another time. Other business closed and cordoned off. Have seen the videos on TV with All Broker and other networks reporting. Just now saw it on the Weather channel. Glad to see you Blue j as we lost a great website and one another.

Good to see you as well, LMD...

The Colony Apartments, was that the tornado that we talked about sometime back that happened in Kettering (and Beavercreek), in May of 1969? Or has there been another more recently than that? (I don't know if those apartments went by that name back then, or if they had even been built, at that time). True, it is almost the exact same area.

[blue j]

Originally Posted by IDtheftV

In your cite, they said that they have not yet rated the tornado, but in the first report it said it was an EF1.

EF2 tornados can push around cars, but it takes an EF3 to overturn cars like that video showed. Now it makes sense. ( EF4 will actually throw cars around ). EF3 is also consistent with that damaged brickwork.

Looking at it further, the cars were overturned after the funnel left the camera field. It crossed the road, gained strength and then turned the cars over on the N side. The amount of stuff flying through the air must have been horrible.

Wow...I didn't think that a tornado that relatively small in area (I had heard it was 70 yards wide, on the ground) could pack that much of a punch. It does seem like 105 MPH would probably not be enough to pick up vehicles and toss them around like that, but I'm not really sure.

At any rate- a scary moment, and we are fortunate more people weren't hurt.

[hensleya1]

As the other posters commented already, the damage was consistent with something stronger than an EF1, however briefly, in the parking lot. By the time the tornado had reached the subdivision behind the shopping center, it had weakened... thankfully. It apparently messed up a few trees and took the roof off at least one house, but nobody was injured back there.

I'm not from Ohio, so tornadoes are an unfamiliar thing to me. Kinda striking when you remember that something like this can hit anywhere, in our case with almost no warning. If you look at the Greene's security cameras that captured the tornado on tape you can see cars driving through the Greene just minding their own business... Nobody would have known until the tornado was on top of them.

Also I echo CP in welcoming blue j and luv my dayton to the board. Sometimes it gets slow around here, so we'd love to have new faces