Thunderstorm Wind — Lewis, West Virginia

2025-07-09 · near Churchville, Lewis, West Virginia

Event narrative

Downed trees near Smoke Camp Road resulted in local power outages in the Churchville community.

Wider weather episode

Active weather returned to West Virginia on July 9th in the midst of a cold front slowly approaching from the west. Additional moisture was ushered into the region from the remnants of a tropical system tracked north through the Carolinas and Virginia. While the bulk of precipitation associated with the tropical system stayed well east of the mountains, scattered showers and thunderstorms sprouted up in the lower elevations ahead of the encroaching cold front. The front remained fairly stationary over the Ohio River on the 8th of July, then lifted back to the north in response to a disturbance moving over the Great Lakes region on the 9th. Warm, humid conditions fostered development of showers and thunderstorms each day, with lulls in activity overnight.

Ahead of this event, one to two inches of rain had already fallen across portions of the area from the previous two days. Showers and storms that occurred on July 9th only exacerbated these moisture-laden soil conditions as additional rainfall amounts ranging between one to two inches, with locally higher pockets of three to four inches, took place. Flooding arose as a result, which impacted roads, yards, and low-lying areas in Calhoun, Fayette, Nicholas, Putnam, and Upshur Counties. A mudslide also blocked part of Route 60 in Kanawha County.

In addition to flooding, a few thunderstorms on the 9th grew strong enough to produce damaging wind gusts across Ritchie, Lewis, and Boone Counties. Local power outages occurred in the midst of these storms due to downed trees and power lines in the area.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.1300, -80.5700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1278474. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.