Flood — Randolph, West Virginia

2022-06-14 · near Gale, Randolph, West Virginia

Event narrative

On the evening of June 14th, the Middle Fork of the Tygart Valley River near Ellamore rose above its 13 foot bankfull level. The river crested at 14.81 feet just after sunset then returned to its banks right before midnight. While the river was out of its banks, water was observed along Kendron Road.

Wider weather episode

Ahead of a frontal boundary, a line of thunderstorms crossed through the Ohio Valley during the late afternoon of June 13th, moving into West Virginia during the evening hours. Hot temperatures during the day aided with providing plenty of afternoon heating for these storms to thrive as the system crossed through the region. Damaging winds were the main concern with this line of storms as it persisted across the Ohio Valley, however frequent lightning also accompanied these storms.

As this first line was exiting along southern West Virginia, a second line of storms formed along the lingering frontal boundary and pushed into the northern portion of the region during the night of the 13th. Damaging winds were again the main threat with this secondary line of storms. Following this line, yet another round of storms with damaging winds entered along the northwestern portions of the area during the early morning of June 14th as enough instability continued to be present across the area. A fourth line then passed through by the later morning hours of the 14th.

The main impacts from these storms were the numerous trees and power lines that were blown down across the region. Multiple power outages occurred across West Virginia as a result.

Following the multiple rounds of storms, rises occurred on a few rivers across the forecast area. Isolated high water issues occurred along local roadways in Randolph and Harrison Counties, with a few roads becoming impassable for a brief period of time.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.9228, -80.0884)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1035220. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.