No Alerts, No Warning: Why a Tornado Hit Cincinnati's Airport Without Detection

Written by: Sam Orlando

When a tornado touched down at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport on Wednesday night, no one was warned. No sirens. No tornado alert. And no indication from the National Weather Service that a storm of that intensity was even forming.

Now, the question isn’t just why it happened—but whether the current system is capable of preventing it from happening again.

The EF-1 tornado reached speeds of 105 miles per hour and was on the ground for just three minutes before dissipating. It damaged an airport construction site, another commercial building, and nearby trees. But despite occurring in a densely monitored area, no tornado warning was issued—because the storm didn't trigger the radar indicators the National Weather Service typically relies on to send alerts.

The NWS office in Wilmington, Ohio—about 50 miles from the airport—said the storm lacked the typical radar signatures associated with tornadoes, such as a debris ball or strong rotational hook. But experts also note that radar beams scan higher in the atmosphere the farther they travel, meaning low-level tornadoes like this one may go undetected when they form far from a radar station.

"This was such a freak, quick thing," said Boone County Emergency Management Director Kevin Vogelpohl. "They were not prepared or did not think that this would occur with this storm."

But while it may have been a fast-moving event, some are asking whether this was also a missed opportunity by human forecasters—or at the very least, a flaw in the system that relies solely on a distant federal office to trigger local sirens.

Boone County’s emergency sirens can only be activated when a tornado warning is issued by the National Weather Service. That means even if local emergency managers see signs of danger, they are not allowed to independently sound the alarm.

Boone County’s Code Red app did push out a severe thunderstorm warning earlier in the night, but those alerts require users to opt in.

This was only the second tornado to hit CVG since 1950, but the lack of warning has left residents and officials deeply unsettled—and it’s raising new questions about whether local authorities should be empowered to issue emergency alerts when federal systems fall short.