Tornado confirmed

A tornado caused damage Tuesday evening in Mercer County north of Fort Recovery.

The National Weather Service on Wednesday evening issued a statement conforming than an EF2 tornado touched down in Mercer County on Tuesday starting 4 miles north-northwest of Fort Recovery.

No fatalities or injuries were reported.

An EF2 indicates winds of between 111 and 135 miles per hour on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. (Tornadoes are rated on a scale from EF0 — weakest — to EF5, which has winds upward 200 miles per hour.) 

According to the statement from the National Weather Service, the tornado began about 7:50 p.m. and continued through 8:08 p.m. The first known damage involved downed trees along Siegrist Jutte Road. The most significant damage, the statement said, was in a wooded area south of Ohio 219 between Wabash and Saint Peter roads.

Some homes sustained roof damage while several outbuildings at farm properties were destroyed or heavily damaged.

The National Weather Services estimated the tornado had a maximum wind speed of 120 miles per hour. It traveled northeast 8.3 miles from about 4 miles north-northwest of Fort Recovery to 1 mile northwest of Coldwater along Burkettsville-Saint Henry Road. It reached a maximum width of 400 yards, a little less than a quarter of a mile.

Jay County Emergency Management director Samantha Rhodehamel said no damage was reported to her office during Tuesday’s storm. She said rotation was spotted in Jay County, but the tornado did not touch down until just over a mile east of the state line.

Indiana Michigan Power released a storm update late Tuesday that indicated 126 of its customers in Indiana lost electrical service in the storm.

The storm marked the second tornado to be confirmed in Mercer County this year, following the March 14 storm that touched down in southeast Adams County and continued to about 4 miles west of Celina, Ohio. That was the same day a tornado ripped through Delaware and Randolph counties, causing severe damage in Selma and Winchester.

In 2021, an EF2 tornado ripped across northeast Jay County and into Mercer County, passing just northeast of Fort Recovery. The hardest hit location in Jay County was in the area of county roads 450 East and 500 North, where several homes and barns were destroyed or severely damaged. A roof was ripped off of Fort Recovery Lumber Company, 2550 Wabash Road, and a line of damage continued a line of damage from near the intersection of Fort Recovery-Minster Road and St. Peter Road southeast toward Fox Road and Township Line Road.