ONA, W.Va. — The National Weather Service has confirmed a tornado touched down in Cabell County Wednesday night.
Meteorologist Nick Webb said it happened at around 9:30 p.m. three miles north of Ona in the north central portion of the county. He said the speeds were around 100 mph.
“The way the trees were laid, the converging pattern along with the radar data we looked up, allowed us to say it was a tornado,” Webb said.
It’s been rated as a strong EF1 tornado. The EF1 rating is anywhere between 86 and 110 mph.
“This was on the high-end of the EF1 wind speed range. So it was a strong EF1,” Webb said.
The NWS believes the tornado was only on the ground for a few minutes as it cut a 400-yard path for a half-mile. The damage is on a ridge near Howells Mill Road.
“Most of the damage was tree damage up on the ridge and coming down the ridge,” according to Webb.
One house was damaged when a large tree fell on the front porch.
The weather service didn’t originally know about the damage but was called by the state DNR. A survey team checked it out on the way back to Charleston Thursday after looking at storm damage in eastern Kentucky.
Webb said the trees were both snapped, uprooted and twisted in a counter-clockwise convergent pattern.