GLENMORE — The confirmation of tornadoes Wednesday in Van Wert County has now doubled to four touching down in the county.
Also, officials from the National Weather Service have now confirmed that a storm that damaged eight homes in Dupont in Putnam County also was a touch down of a tornado.
Putnam County Office of Public Safety Director Michael Klear said National Weather Service officials were in the area. A barn at one residence suffered heavy roof damage. Damage to the other homes consisted of siding, shingles and a few broken windows. Klear said there were also several broken branches.
Van Wert County Emergency Management Agency director Rick McCoy said he spent the day with other staff officials and representatives from the NWS in the field most of Thursday surveying the tracks of the tornadoes and determining their size, strength and duration.
McCoy said that the National Weather Service rated three of the tornadoes at EF0 and another at EF1.
The storms all developed out of a supercell thunderstorm that developed Wednesday near Kokomo, Indiana. At 6:32 p.m., spotters reported a large tornado with a second funnel aloft on German Church Road east of Convoy Heller Road (state Route 49). It remained on the ground for four miles, crossing U.S. 224 and crossing Wolfcale Road. A second tornado then touched down a quarter mile west of the first and continued one mile then lifted at U.S. 30 and Richey Road. A third tornado touched down at 6:43 p.m. just north of the Van Wert city limits, and it remained on the ground for a half mile. The final tornado touched down moments later and touched down at Feasby Wisener Road just west of Middle Point-Wetzel Road. The last tornado was a quarter-mile wide and traveled for two miles, lifting at Van Wert Paulding County Line Road.
The tornado warnings were all lifted at 7:19 p.m. McCoy said Red Cross teams were sent in to assess the damage and check on residents. There were six properties that had damage, but no significant losses were reported.
“Luckily, the tornadoes were over a lot of rural cropland and spared many homes,” McCoy said.
The Van Wert County Commissioners issued an emergency declaration Thursday to help victims.
McCoy said several residents went without power temporarily but the number of those affected was not yet available. Several residents in Dupont also were without power for various lengths of time.
Trained weather spotter Phil Saunier was on leave from the Army, visiting relatives. He said the storm was rare in the fact that the tornadoes developed so quickly and had no hail. Saunier recorded several videos of the touch downs.
“I was kind of skeptical at first,” Saunier said. “However, the whole cell itself was rotating. The tornado warning was issued about five minutes before it dropped.”
Saunier followed the storm for several miles and said it was also rare in that it had an echo of only 30,000 feet. An echo is found in the lower portions of a storm as air and precipitation flow into a mesocyclone resulting in a curved feature of reflectivity. The echo is produced by rain, hail, or even debris being wrapped around the supercell. It is one of the classic hallmarks of tornado-producing supercells. The National Weather Service may consider the presence of a hook echo as sufficient to justify issuing a tornado warning.
Adding in the four tornadoes that touched down in Van Wert County Wednesday, there have now been 31 in that county since 1990, the most of any county in Ohio.
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