NWS: Tornado confirmed in Hancock County

A storm damage survey conducted Wednesday by the National Weather Service Office in Cleveland confirmed that an EF-0 tornado touched down near Rawson on Tuesday. Alexa Maines, a meteorologist with the Cleveland office, said weather service personnel inspected the storm damage early on Wednesday. According to their findings, the tornado touched down about a half-mile south of Rawson at 5:31 p.m. Tuesday, and stayed on the ground for nearly seven miles, before lifting just west of the Findlay Airport, 1615 Gray St. An EF-0 tornado, considered a weak tornado, has maximum wind speeds of 65 mph to 85 mph on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, used to measure tornado strength based on wind speed. The tornado was about 25 yards wide. Maines said even though the tornado was classified as an EF-0, it did a lot of damage. According to the survey, a metal barn roof was ripped off and wood beams were snapped and driven into the ground. Another barn was destroyed, several power poles were snapped and blown down, and several trees were blown down. Tuesday's storm downed a few trees in Findlay, with little other damage. Maines said information gathered in the survey is still preliminary and subject to change pending a final review of the event and publication in the weather service's storm data bank. Grant: 419-427-8412