High winds, but not tornado, caused 4-5 mile swath of damage, NWS says

Strong storms in Oakwood, Kettering, Beavercreek prompted tornado warnings Sunday.

Credit: Marshall Gorby

Credit: Marshall Gorby

Non-tornadic winds likely up to 70 mph caused damage in Greene and Montgomery counties Sunday, according to findings Monday by the National Weather Service.

A “4.5-mile swath of intermittent wind damage, mainly to trees” in Oakwood, Kettering and Beavercreek was surveyed Monday, according to the NWS office in Wilmington.

The weather service said “damage was broad and sporadic” in Oakwood and centered on Forrer Boulevard, “over a half mile wide at times.”

“Gaps of more consistent wind damage were evident before another area of more concentrated wind damage in Kettering” along Aragon Avenue and Vale Drive, according to the weather service.

Kettering crews were working Monday after calls of fallen trees and other damage was reported in the city.

That Aragon Avenue area, just east of Woodman Drive, was one of the hardest hit. There were several downed trees at the Ketwood Apartments in that neighborhood. Mary Azbill, community information manager for the city of Kettering, said falling trees damaged vehicles both there and in the Wiles Creek neighborhood slightly to the west.

Kettering police had four calls Monday morning regarding damage caused by the storms on Vale, Aragon and Sutton avenues near Woodman, as well as on Imperial Boulevard in Wiles Creek.

A resident also reported a tree that fell across the bike path by State Farm Park, also just east of Woodman Drive, Azbill said.

A large tree that fell in the 2600 block of Oakley Avenue, just east of Oakwood, was removed by city of Kettering parks and recreation workers.

Despite the mess created, “little evidence of a concentrated tornadic circulation existed in the tree damage,” the NWS report stated.

As the storm moved east, there was another gap in damage before more popped up in southwestern Beavercreek, where “a house had siding removed from the top of the home and thrown downwind,” according to the weather service.

Results of survey “suggest this damage was likely to be non-tornadic … with maximum speeds between 65 and 70 mph,” the report stated.

Rainfall of just 0.33 inches fell at the Dayton International Airport on Sunday, according to the NWS, but other areas closer to downtown Dayton, as well as to south and east near Kettering got significant rainfall as the storms passed through.

High water was reported at 6:40 p.m. on Garvin Road north of downtown Dayton, as well as at Stanley Avenue and Keowee Street as the storm moved southeast.

The storm was responsible for a tornado warning that was issued at 5:54 p.m. Sunday for Greene and Montgomery counties, after the NWS said severe thunderstorms capable of producing a tornado were located over Oakwood, Kettering and Beavercreek. The warning was canceled 15-20 minutes later.

The trees that were uprooted in Beavercreek and the siding that was ripped off a building happened at 6:04 p.m., according to a trained spotter’s report to the NWS.

The Dayton area forecast for the next three days calls for nothing but clear skies, with afternoon high temperatures in the low to mid-80s, and overnight lows in the low to mid-60s.

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