Thunderstorm Wind in McDowell County, West Virginia

A downed tree caused one lane of Panther Mohawk Road to become impassable. A second downed tree was observed along a local road in the Land Graff community.

A strong cold front entered into West Virginia during the late night hours of March 15th and brought strong to severe thunderstorms through the state just before dawn on the 16th. Numerous areas of downed trees and power lines were observed across the area with this activity, then quickly followed by strong synoptic winds through the late morning hours. In the wake of the storms, weather stations in the state began to report gusts on the upwards of 40 miles per hour just before sunrise, with the strongest non-thunderstorm wind gust observed at the Huntington airport of 48 miles per hour. High pressure building in from the west later on the morning of March 16th alleviated the strong post-frontal winds across the state.