Hail, wind, tornadoes and ice in Central Ohio, county by county

Freezing nights and floods are covered elsewhere in this knowledge base; this page covers the rest of the weather that damages Central Ohio houses. It counts NOAA's records of severe hail, damaging thunderstorm wind, tornadoes, ice storms and heat in Franklin, Delaware, Licking, Fairfield, Union, Madison and Pickaway counties, by county and by month, with the tornado record since 1950 and the days that did the most damage, and says plainly what the storm record can and cannot tell.

Last updated September 2026 · Storm figures are NOAA's Storm Events Database, 1996 to 2025, and tornadoes from 1950; heat days are NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals, each read September 24, 2026 · No prices on this page; the Estimate Builder carries those · Part of the knowledge base

What the storm record is, and what it is not

The figures here come from NOAA's Storm Events Database, the National Weather Service's record of storms reported in each county: every county and forecast-zone record for Franklin, Delaware, Licking, Fairfield, Union, Madison and Pickaway counties from 1996, the first year the database recorded every type of event, through 2025, the latest complete year, plus its tornado records back to 1950. Every record from 1996 on comes from the Weather Service office in Wilmington, Ohio; the older tornado records name no office. The database is a record of reports that reached the Weather Service from spotters, the media, police and the public, not a measurement of every yard, and its own notes say some information may be unverified. A storm that crosses three counties is three records, so the tables count records by county and count days separately, each date once.

The Weather Service's definitions set the lines used below. Severe hail is 1 inch or larger, about the size of a quarter. Damaging thunderstorm wind is at least 50 knots, which is 58 miles an hour, and the person preparing the record must say whether the speed was measured by an instrument or estimated, usually from the damage. Winter storms, ice storms, heat and wind not from a thunderstorm are recorded by forecast zone rather than by point.

Hail and damaging wind, county by county, 1996 to 2025

Spread over the thirty years, that is about four days a year with inch-wide hail somewhere in the seven counties, and about thirteen and a half days with damaging thunderstorm wind. Every one of the thirty years had at least one of each. Of the 1,372 damaging wind records, 138 were measured by an instrument, 1,098 were estimated and 136 carry no type. The highest measured value is 89 knots, about 102 miles an hour, at Heath in Licking County on April 20, 2011, minutes after a tornado crossed the Newark Heath airport.

Franklin County logs the most records. No source read for this page says why, and the database is a count of reports, so the county columns are not a ranking of where storms strike most.

Hail peaks in April and May; damaging wind peaks in June and July.

Tornadoes since 1950

The database holds 161 county tornado records for the seven counties from 1950 through 2025. None is rated F4 or F5, and none EF3 or stronger since 2002. Six F3 tornadoes are recorded, listed below. Five people were killed: four in Delaware County on April 11, 1965, by an F2 that also injured 35, and one in Licking County on May 31, 1985. No tornado death is recorded in the seven counties from 1996 through 2025. Franklin County's records for 1950 through 2023 number 34, the same count the page on what goes wrong in a Central Ohio house gives from the state hazard plan.

2024 had more tornado records than any other year, 20. February 28, 2024 alone accounts for 10, including three EF2 county records from two tornadoes: one in Madison County, and one that ran from Blacklick in Franklin County into Licking County toward Granville, whose Franklin record estimates winds around 120 miles an hour and describes a home with extensive roof loss and one exterior wall gone. A tornado record is a county segment, so one tornado crossing a county line appears twice.

Ice and winter storms

The database records ice storms in the region on eight dates from 1996 to 2025: March 6, 1996; January 24, 1997; December 13, 2000; February 13, 2007; December 23, 2008; January 10, 2009; February 1, 2011; and November 14, 2018. For February 1, 2011 the Franklin County record says the media measured nine tenths of an inch of ice in Columbus; for November 14, 2018 it gives 0.28 inch at the Columbus airport. The database counts 54 separate winter storm episodes in the region over the same years. Ice dams at the roof edge and the code's ice barrier rule are on the page on what goes wrong in a Central Ohio house.

Heat

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals give twelve Central Ohio stations between 12.7 and 22.7 days a year with a high of 90 degrees or hotter, most of them in June, July and August, and almost none at 100. These are the same twelve stations as the page on freezing weather by station. The storm database recorded excessive heat in the region only on July 19 and 20, 2019, when the heat index ran above 105. Its lesser heat entries fall on July 20, 1999 and on the days around the June 29, 2012 derecho, when its Licking County record lists three deaths tied to heat and the power outages that followed.

The costliest days, and why the damage figures cannot compare storms

The database carries a property damage estimate on many records, which NOAA calls broad estimates, not adjusted for inflation. For the seven counties from 1996 to 2025, about 85 percent of the total comes from three days: the hail of October 4, 2006, up to hen's-egg size across the eastern Columbus suburbs and Pataskala; the windstorm of September 14, 2008, from the remnants of Hurricane Ike; and the hail of April 20, 2003, golf-ball size from Dublin through Worthington and Powell to Westerville, reported up to six inches deep in Worthington. The June 29, 2012 derecho, which left 915,366 Ohio customers without power at its peak, carries almost nothing in the same database. A storm's entry reflects how damage was reported, not only how much there was.

For the Ike windstorm, the Weather Service in Wilmington recorded a 75 mile-an-hour gust and 54 mile-an-hour sustained wind at Port Columbus, which it called the highest gust ever measured at the airport and the second highest in Columbus records, after 110 miles an hour downtown on July 31, 1916. It notes that gusts were not included in year-end summaries until 1984. How often the power goes out, and for how long, is on the page on power outages in Central Ohio.

Sources

Every figure, date and quotation on this page comes from one of these documents, read on the date given. Where two of them disagree, the page says so.

• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, every county and forecast-zone record for the seven counties, 1996 to 2025, and tornado records from 1950, through the database's own search; read September 24, 2026.
• National Weather Service, Instruction 10-1605, Storm Data Preparation, July 26, 2021; read September 24, 2026.
• National Weather Service, Wilmington, Ohio, Remnants of Hurricane Ike, historical perspective, public information statement of September 19, 2008; read September 24, 2026.
• National Weather Service, Wilmington, Ohio, The June 29, 2012 Derecho, and NOAA, Service Assessment, The Historic Derecho of June 29, 2012, January 2013, Table 2; read September 24, 2026.
• National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals, 1991 to 2020, annual and seasonal normals for twelve Central Ohio stations, through the NCEI data service; read September 24, 2026.

Common questions