LOOKOUT, W.Va. — The Charleston office of the National Weather Service confirmed that a tornado touched down in Fayette County Wednesday afternoon.
The NWS sent a survey team to the Lookout area of the county Thursday in response to the severe weather event.
The tornado reportedly began at 4:03 p.m. Wednesday between U.S. 19 and Whispering Pines Lane in the Pine Grove community and continued for seven minutes with a damage path going southeast.
Surveyors found extensive tree damage and some roof damage to a couple structures along Edmond Road and U.S. 60.
The survey reported that the tornado ended at 4:10 p.m. in the Lookout area.
The NWS said this was the fifth documented tornado in Fayette County since 1961, and the first in two years.
The NWS said in an X post that the survey team found evidence showing winds upward of 110 miles per hour.
According to the nationally recognized Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale, which measures severity of tornadoes, the 110 m.p.h. winds qualified as an EF1 event.
The EF-Scale has six levels, from EF0 (weakest tornado, 65-to-85 mile-per-hour winds) to EF5 (most violent, 200-or-higher mile-per-hour winds).
The NWS added an interesting note that Wednesday’s tornado happened only 1.9 miles south of where an EF2 tornado occurred in 2024.