Thunderstorm Wind — Fayette, West Virginia

2024-04-02 · near Jodie, Fayette, West Virginia

Event narrative

A microburst with maximum winds of 100 miles per hour in the communities of Jodie and Swiss along the Nicholas and Fayette County line. Notable significant damage was first observed along Jodie Road where large mixed hardwood and softwood trees were either uprooted or snapped. This damage extended along the banks of the Gauley River and up the slopes of the adjacent hillsides. In addition, a roof was blown off of a home along with an attached car port from a different home. The tree damage continued northeast, crossing State Route 39, and ended up a narrow ravine on the north side of the road. It is here where numerous large hardwood trees were uprooted in a general northeast direction.

While there were isolated signs of converging tree damage, likely from steep terrain induced wind patterns, the overwhelming evidence indicated the occurrence of a microburst. This conclusion was further supported by radar interrogation.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.2300, -81.1500)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1168426. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.