EF1 tornado in Putnam County, West Virginia

An EF1 tornado touched down south of Eleanor to Bancroft, with a non-continuous path and maximum winds of 90 miles per hour. Initial damage was observed along Hurricane Creek Road, just north of the intersection with Sugar Camp Road south of Fraziers Bottom.

Scattered tree damage was observed, mainly large limbs of hardwood trees with a few uprooted trees noted as well. There was a slight converging signature observed in this area. More significant hardwood tree damage was observed along State Route 34 south of Winfield with a concentrated area of hardwoods either snapped or uprooted with a more pronounced tornadic damage signature.

Additionally, concentrated tree damage occurred along State Route 817 in the Shawnee Estates area across from Bancroft. Here, a narrow damage swath of several mixed hardwood and softwood trees were either snapped or uprooted, which continued eastward along Cannery Lane. A converging damage path was noted.

The tornado appeared to be in the treetops with only minor property damage observed. The tornado lifted just after crossing the Kanawha River.

A strong area of low pressure tracking through the Ohio Valley caused multiple rounds of thunderstorms across the state of West Virginia on April 2nd and 3rd. The first round that occurred on the 2nd took the form of an intense squall line that raced across the southern and central portions of the state during the late morning and midday hours. This caused extensive wind damage, with a 92 mile per hour wind gust measured at the Huntington Tri-State Airport, along with at least nine embedded tornadoes in a corridor from Huntington to east of Charleston. In addition to damage associated with the tornadoes, over 100 locations reported non-tornadic wind damage.

Additional thunderstorms later in the afternoon produced another tornado in the Hico community of Fayette County. The ten confirmed tornadoes during this event is a record for the most tornadoes observed during any event in the state of West Virginia.

To top it all off, the multiple rounds of thunderstorms also resulted in excessive rainfall amounts for parts of the state. This resulted in several instances of flash flooding of creeks and streams with reported road closures due to high water, primarily during the evening of April 2nd. The transition to generalized flooding occurred during the early morning of April 3rd due to the response from larger creeks. Considerable runoff from this rainfall caused river flooding along the Tygart Valley River and its tributaries, and very heavy rainfall over Pennsylvania from these same storms led to moderate to major flooding on the Ohio River between April 4th to the 6th. One fatality occurred in Wood County on the 4th when a motorist entered flood waters and their vehicle overturned and then submerged.