CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Last week’s outbreak of storms in West Virginia started with two super cells located extremely close together in Ohio and moving into West Virginia. The rare twin cells started in Washington County, Ohio. The storms screamed across the Ohio River and caused widespread damage in Pleasants County.
“That clears up the old myth that tornadoes won’t cross water. They most certainly will,” said NWS Meteorologist Harrison Sincavage at the National Weather Service in Charleston.
One of the tornadoes was EF-2 in strength and the other two were EF-1 One stopped in Pleasants County, the strongest one also landed in Pleasants County after originating in Ohio but continued on into Doddridge County. A third tornado, rated EF-1, moved through Pleasants County and travelled through parts of Tyler and Ritchie County before it too finally stopped in Doddridge County.
“We call that a long-track tornado. It tracked for 24.2 miles and was 1,320 yards wide, which is the width of 13 football fields,” he explained.
There were four more tornadoes last Tuesday afternoon and evening. They have been confirmed by the Weather Service. Barbour County experienced an EF-0 tornado, their second in five weeks. Hampshire County had an EF-1 tornado which stretched into Frederick County, Va. Pendleton County had two tornadoes, one an EF-0 which started and stopped around Seneca Rocks. The other was an EF-1 tornado which originated east of Franklin and stretched into Rockingham County, Va.
Sincavage explained those tornadoes originated from the same system which dumped record rains on Lewis and Upshur Counties.
“As those storms continued to progress eastward, what can happen sometimes with supercells, they like to move to the right. As they jog to the right, they like to slow down,” he explained.
When they finally slowed down they were over the Weston and Buckhannon areas and were heavily laden with moisture. According to the weather service, three rainfall records were set at the official monitoring stations. Parkersburg had 1.93 inches of rain in a 24-hour period which broke the previous record of 1.43 inches set in 1949. Clarksburg saw 1.86 inches of rain, which broke the previous record 1.5 inches set in 1931. Elkins also set a new record for rainfall in a 24-hour period with 2.02 inches of rain, which broke the previous record of 1.96 inches from 1925.
Although those records are the officially recorded amounts, observers in the area reported far heavier rainfall totals in some isolated areas. Typically, the weather service doesn’t published locally observed amounts as part of the record. In Lewis County, 4.27 inches of rain was measured at Stonewall Jackson Lake. Another observer 2.6 miles southeast of Buckhannon reported 7.6 inches of rain. The same observer reported 4 inches of that fell in three hours. The observer in that area has been recording for the weather service since 2017. The official observer in Buckhannon recorded 5.85 inches of rain in a 24-hour period which would break the official observer record of 4.56 inches set on June 25, 1950.
As impressive as they are, those amounts did not break the state record for an observer amount. That record is 12.02 inches set on June 18, 1949 in Brushy Run. Officials also pointed out there was an unofficial observation in Rockport on July 18, 1889. The report claimed 19 inches of rain in 2 hours and 10 minutes. However, that amount has never been confirmed and remains unofficial.