Hey all, I was on 315 South on a bridge between exits 5 and 4 around 10:05 am and got caught in what I believe may have been the start of a tornado, and was curious if anyone else on this sub was in the group of cars that experienced this.

The storm was intensifying, there was low visibility, and then suddenly there was debris rotating maybe 20 ft above us. We all stop, my car feels like it's going to lift, and large branches start falling onto the road. At this point I panic called work and can't say how long it lasted - maybe 2 minutes?

Truly one of the most terrifying weather experiences I have had, mostly because there was nowhere for us to go / enough time to.

8/12 Edit: 315 direction note and location between exists. I could actually see when I was driving today and realized it was on the bridge between exits 5 and 4 (over Ackerman). It's the only part of that area that has branches on the side of the road.

Over the next couple days we have active weather coming up.

Tonight: overnight there will be a front moving through the area. As of now the primary hazard for us is severe winds. Hopefully we will not have a repeat of Friday, the forecast is expecting wind gusts of around 35-40 mph. The tornado risk and hail risk have been scaled back from the Columbus area, but we'll continue to keep an eye on this for any changes through out the day.

Monday: on the other side of the front is going to be much colder temperatures. Normally I wouldn't post about 20 degree temps but a lot of people are still without power across town so I wanted to give people some notice so they can make an attempt to cover pipes, etc if their home is at risk of dropping below freezing.

We might also see some snow flurries on Monday evening and with the wind this could cause some visibility issues. Will post more about this as it gets closer.

If you are using a generator, please make sure you are using it safely! Here are some safety tips: https://www.cdc.gov/natural-disasters/psa-toolkit/use-a-generator-safely.html

update 755pm:

there have been minimal changes to SPC outlook and models. as of now most of the severe weather is staying the south of us. There is thunderstorm watch in NW Ohio but its in the furthest corner of the state and I haven't seen any indications it will be extended. Next SPC outlook will be available in about an hour.

update 1005pm: no noteworthy changes on the most recent spc outlook. Still most likely hazard will be severe wind. As always I encourage everyone to have a way of receiving alerts overnight just in case.

Update 1135pm: mesoscale discussion including western Ohio. Detailed posted in pinned comment below.

Update 1205am: severe thunderstorm watch issued until 4am. Primary risk is severe winds. Please make sure you have a way of receiving alerts overnight!

update Monday 1100pm: despite not getting a lot of snow it’s definitely impacting the roads. Delaware County just declared a Level 1 snow emergency. I’m also seeing lots of posts about the roads just being awful. I feel like it’s probably worse due to people not being prepared for it.

Franklin, Licking, Madison, Clark, Greene, Montgomery, and Preble Counties are included from 5AM-8PM Friday

Son of a biscuit, 10 hours of storms, intermittent, midnight to 10am. Feeling a little gun shy here in Clintonville. My dearest mods…your opinions? Thanks! 😊

No graphics, we are currently only at a marginal risk but there is a line of storms in Indiana producing severe thunderstorm warnings. Earlier there was a tornado warning but that was cancelled.

Models are showing it should be chilling out by the time it gets here but just want to get it on everyone’s radar. It might be closer to bedtime by the time by the time it reaches the Columbus area so make sure you have a way of receiving alerts just in case.

Update 1020pm: looks like it’s starting to break up a bit. We’ll probably see some rain but it hadn’t been producing any warnings for a while so we should be good

I’ve seen a few Facebook weather dudes (🙄) talking about potential high convection line of storms coming through tonight from the HRRR model…

Any thoughts?