Nearly 200 outdoor warning sirens across Franklin County stayed silent Aug. 11, as wind gusts exceeding 80 mph tore through Upper Arlington, toppling trees onto homes and a police cruiser. The reason: no tornado warning was ever issued.

Franklin County Emergency Management Agency Director Jeff Young told 10TV on Aug. 12 that the county's siren system activates only when the National Weather Service office in Wilmington issues a tornado warning, which requires Doppler radar to detect rotation.

"We only activate our tornado sirens when the National Weather Service in Wilmington issues a tornado warning," Young said. "So, in this case, they did not get any indication on the Doppler radar that they had rotation, so they did not issue a tornado warning."

The storm produced a peak gust of 82 mph at John Glenn Columbus International Airport at 10:43 a.m., according to the Columbus Dispatch. That speed is comparable to an EF0 tornado. But because the winds were straight-line rather than rotating, the NWS threshold for a tornado warning was never met.

The Storm Prediction Center has preliminarily classified the Aug. 11 system as a derecho, a long-lived windstorm that traveled from Iowa through Chicago and Indiana before slamming central Ohio, Spectrum News 1 reported. The classification remains preliminary.

In Upper Arlington, the storm generated roughly 225 calls for service. Trees fell on at least 10 homes along Wellesley Drive, and a tree struck a police cruiser near Riverside Drive and McCoy Road. No injuries were reported in the city. As we reported Aug. 12, more than 200,000 customers lost power statewide, and one death was reported across Ohio.

The NWS did issue a tornado warning for neighboring Union County earlier that morning but withdrew it when radar showed no evidence of a tornado. Franklin County never received one.

Young urged residents to treat severe thunderstorm warnings with the same urgency as tornado warnings, noting that straight-line winds "can carry the same punch." The county's 198 sirens alert people outdoors and are not loud enough to be heard inside homes.

An NWS survey team walked the damage path near Upper Arlington High School on Aug. 12, interviewing residents and assessing debris. A final storm classification for the Upper Arlington area is expected within days.

Franklin County Commissioners authorized $439,050 in late July to replace aging sirens and relocate others across the county. Young said none of the sirens slated for replacement are currently out of service, but some have exceeded their service life and parts are no longer reliably available.

Residents can report non-emergency storm damage to Upper Arlington Police at 614-459-2800. The city will begin curbside chipping of storm debris Aug. 17; residents should have limbs at the curb by that morning.