High Wind — Floyd, Virginia

2024-12-05 · Floyd, Virginia

Event narrative

There was an instantaneous gust of 58 mph at a location two miles southeast of Willis. Power outages in Floyd County peaked at around 43 customers around 7:00 AM EST with complete restoration not complete until around 7:00 PM EST.

Wider weather episode

A cold front crossed the region on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. Behind the front, northwest winds increased Wednesday night, and reached their peak Thursday morning, December 5, 2024. A couple locations across Southwest Virginia experienced wind speed peaks at or greater than 58 mph. Specifically, a gust to 58 mph was measured at a location two miles southeast of Willis, VA and a gust to 66 mph was measured at a location 4.1 miles west of Rugby, VA. With the very high winds also came power outages. The onset of the power outages occurred a couple of hours before the strongest wind gusts. The greatest number of outages peaked around mid-morning to early afternoon hours, then decreased in number through the early evening hours. In Floyd County, outages peaked at approximately 43 customers at 7:00 AM, and in Grayson County, outages peaked at approximately 2,366 customers around 10:00 AM.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1227184. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.