6/15/23 tornadoes

[ChrisWL1980]

Looks like northwest Ohio might have had quite the tornado outbreak Thursday night. As of this typing only one tornado is confirmed (in Ottawa County around Port Clinton/Oak Harbor) but there's significant damage in the Point Place area with residents being told to shelter in place, and videos clearly show what appears to be a tornado doing damage.
Who did the best/worst coverage on TV? Did iHeart even acknowledge anything?

[CurlyHoward]

WTVG's Facebook has footage of what happened in Point Place from the major intersection of Ottawa River Rd. and Suder Ave. You can see the roof being torn off of a building. If that's not a tornado, I'm Taylor Swift.

I wasn't watching the coverage on TV because I had to work until 6:30 but my office incessantly plays 101.5 The River and shortly after 6 pm they broke in with an EAS warning for a tornado warning for southeast Monroe County, then around 6:15 they broke in with another one for northeast Lucas County stating the storm was passing north of Oregon and was tracking towards Reno Beach. This was after what had happened in Point Place had already happened. Apparently the NWS based out of Cleveland dropped the ball and didn't even issue a tornado watch until the storm had already hit.

Meanwhile where I work in Maumee the skies darkened and the sirens went off because it's Lucas County, but it didn't even rain.

[MWmetalhead]

I agree NWS Cleveland dropped the ball.

Kudos, though, to 101.5 The River for competently airing the EAS alerts.

Damage survey conducted by NWS Cleveland confirmed EF-2 tornadoes struck Point Place and Oak Harbor. Peak winds 130 mph.

[Mega Hertz]

https://youtu.be/L_iTXO9CLtk

[ChrisWL1980]

Also seeing an EF0 touched down near Ashland (east of Mansfield).

That's why you need TV meteorologists who know what they're doing and can recognize the signs ahead of time, because often the NWS won't issue a warning until it's too late. It surprised me to learn that Toledo is in the Cleveland NWS zone. Shame on Cleveland NWS for apparently not paying proper attention to what was happening in SE MI, especially when freaking MONROE COUNTY was under a tornado warning. It's fortunate there were no major injuries or fatalities (or at least I haven't heard of any).

This reminds me of something I read about the F3 that leveled part of Windsor during the 1974 Super Outbreak. Windsor was in the Toronto Environment Canada office's area of responsibility then (don't know if that's still the case) and EC Toronto didn't issue a tornado warning for Essex County until after the storm had already hit and destroyed the Windsor Curling Club. Windsor broadcast media had to rely on U.S. reports for timely information (EC believing that the NWS had a tendency to "cry wolf" too often) and in fact Channel 9 was on the air with the NWS tornado warning for Wayne County maybe 15 or 20 minutes before the EC warning was issued. Nine people died in that storm. Windsor-Essex radio and TV did the best they could, but were hindered by EC's own folly.

[radioandtventhusiast]

In my area, there was a tree that landed on a house, causing a power outage that started on Thursday and lasted until this morning. My brother and sister-in-law however, have no power still. They said it could take 4 days, but I am glad I have power.