High Wind — Northwest Webster, West Virginia

2023-04-01 · Northwest Webster, West Virginia

Event narrative

Downed trees were observed in the community of Webster Springs. Throughout the county, over 14,000 homes were without power for a time due to downed power lines.

Wider weather episode

Deep mixing between a departing cold front and a secondary frontal passage supported gusty to strong winds across West Virginia to open up the month of April. Winds picked up in intensity during the late morning hours and peaked in the afternoon/early evening. 40-50 miles per hour gusts were common throughout the afternoon across West Virginia, with the strongest gust recorded occurring at a mesonet station in Snowshoe of 65 mph. All major airports in the region observed a peak wind gust above 50 miles per hour that day.

Hundreds of thousands of households in the state lost power by the afternoon time frame as a result of trees blowing down onto power lines. Around the same time the Charleston Yeager airport measured a peak wind gust of 59 miles per hour, the South Charleston City Hall suffered considerable structural damage as the roof was blown off a portion of the building. In Barbour County, parts of roofs were also blown off of homes.

Winds finally began to subside after dark on the 1st as the disturbance departed into New England and high pressure built in from the west. However, the power restoration process extended into the next several days as utility companies began work on installing new power poles and lines.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1090733. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.