Jennifer Edwards Baker reports:
Meteorologists from the National Weather Service will fan out across Butler and Warren counties in Ohio and Franklin County in southeastern Indiana today to see if damage from Tuesday night’s storms is due to tornadoes touching down.
An unstable, warm flow of air that came up from the south led to the storms, which were worst between 5-7 p.m. with heavy downpours, flash flooding, hail as large as golf balls, lightning and winds whipping up to 60 mph.
At the height of the storm, high water forced police to shut down northbound Interstate 75 just north of Indiana 74 until 11 p.m.
Anywhere from .75 inches to 4 inches of rain fell, with the least amounts recorded in Northern Kentucky and the most in northern Hamilton County, said meteorologist Andy Hatzos. Most areas saw 2-4 inches.
A tornado may have struck about 5:15 p.m. along State Route 252 and Raymond Road in Mt. Carmel, Ind., causing minor damage to homes and barns, according to the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.
No injuries were reported. Residents told fire crews they spotted at least one funnel cloud that may have traveled over the Ohio state border and touched down somewhere in northwestern Butler County, according to county emergency communication reports.
So far today, officials at the Butler County Sheriff’s Office and Trenton and Oxford police agencies say they have no such reports confirmed.
“What we know so far is there are damage reports in Mt. Carmel and Lebanon and we don’t know for certain if there are any reports of damage in Butler County. There is the possibility there could be,” said meteorologist Andy Hatzos.
In Warren County, a woman at 155 Clubhouse Lane in Lebanon called 911 at 6:40 p.m. and said her house had been hit by a tornado, according to Lebanon police and fire emergency communication reports. No one was injured. Elsewhere in Lebanon, high winds knocked down trees.
Lightning struck a house on St. Andrews Street in Mason about 2:30 a.m. today, causing $50,000 in damage, according to Mason police and fire emergency communication reports. Two residents inside at the time safely made it out.
A flood advisory was in effect until 8:15 a.m. today for northern Hamilton County, which includes the Mill Creek basin, said meteorologist Scott Hickman.
The storm system has moved out of the region, and today should be mostly dry with the high temperature soaring to a balmy 88 degrees.
That’s just two degrees shy of the record of 90 degrees, set on this date in 1959, said Hatzos.
Normally, the high temperature for this time of year is just 70 degrees.
Thursday should see more record-breaking heat as the high again reaches 88, which will shatter the previous record of 87 degrees on that date.
