Several waves of severe weather once again batter the area with damaging winds and heavy rain.
The first wave came though Tuesday morning, triggering severe thunderstorm warnings throughout the area. A tornado warning was issued for portions of Clark and Champaign counties around 9:30 for radar-indicated rotation. Strong winds brought down numerous trees in the Urbana area, and significant damage occurred at a home on Hurst Road which is four miles southeast of Urbana.
City officials are asking people to stay away from downed trees and power lines, and to avoid unnecessary travel especially on Main street which bore the brunt of Tuesday's storms. The City will be collecting tree limbs if they are arranged in a parallel pattern by the curb of the road.
The City Fire Department is expressing gratitude to residents as they helped each other in the storm's wake. The Department's B shift responded to over 100 calls during and after Tuesday's storm.
Damage was also seen in Darke County as a home on Bean Road just east of Ansonia has severe roof damage.
AES Ohio posted on social media that over 12,000 customers were without power due to the high winds after the first wave moved through Tuesday morning.
The storms moved into central Ohio, where a wind gust of 82 MPH was recorded at the John Glenn International Airport which is just northeast of Columbus.
The second wave of storms came through during the early afternoon hours Tuesday, bringing more tornado warnings to the area as radar showed possible rotation in the storm clouds. A storm capable of producing a tornado moved through portions of Butler and Hamilton counties. Wind gusts of over 50 MPH were observed at the Butler County Regional Airport.
Heavy rains fell as the storms moved through. Standing water was observed on Route 68 in the Midland area in Clinton County Tuesday afternoon. Other reports of scattered flooding was reported, as the National Weather Service reported over two inches of rain fell in the Dayton area on Tuesday.
A wind gust of 68 MPH was recorded at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati just before 4 p.m..
AES Ohio reported over 12,000 outages at 5 p.m. Tuesday. That number diminished to about 2,100 by 11 p.m., with 1,800 of those outages in Champaign County.
More storms are in the forecast for the next few days, and a flood watch for southwestern Ohio has been extended until Friday. Heavy rains and some strong thunderstorms are once again in the forecast for Thursday night into Friday.
The National Weather Service will send teams out to look at the storm damage to determine if any were the result of tornadoes.
This post will be updated as more information becomes available.
