EF0 tornado in Preston County, West Virginia

Tornado May 13, 2026 · Preston County, West Virginia

EF0

Rating

0.8 mi

Path length

65 yd

Path width

$30K

Damage as recorded

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 65 yards (0.04 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A severe thunderstorm crossed northern West Virginia through

Monongalia and Preston Counties on the afternoon of May 13th, 2026.

This storm produced wind damage and quarter size hail as it tracked

across the northern part of the state. Weak mid-level rotation

tightened and intensified as the storm reached western Preston

County and produced a brief tornado. The damage produced by this

storm, surveyed by UAS and security cameras, was determined to be tornadic and representative of an EF-0 with peak wind of 85 mph. Initial damage began along the west side of Moran Road, 3 miles east of Reedsville, WV, where trees were uprooted and a roof was blown off a restaurant. This was deemed to be a surge of straight line wind damage. The character of the damage then became tornadic on the east side of Moran Road where several trees were uprooted, trunks of a few dead trees snapped, and large branches scattered within a wooded area. The tornado then continued through a few hundred yards of thick woods with sporadic tree damage noted before reaching Hovatter's Wildlife Zoo. Here, trees were snapped, uprooted, and large branches were scattered across the property. Security cameras on the property recorded a clear tornadic circulation, and visible convergence patterns in the

felled trees further confirmed the tornadic damage. The tornado then

dissipated on the east side of the zoo with no further distinguishable

path. The National Weather Service in Pittsburgh would like to thank Preston

County Emergency Management officials for their aerial footage and

aid with this survey.

The wider storm

Mid-afternoon thunderstorms both in broken line segments and single cells developed along and ahead of a cold front. Marginal effective shear values up to 30 knots and MLCAPE of 500-1000 J/kg supported severe thunderstorms producing both wind and hail. Wind was primarily confined to northern West Virginia along a DCAPE gradient of 600-700 J/kg. Mid-level lapse rates up to 6.5 C/km and up to 300 J/kg of hail growth zone CAPE supported numerous reports of quarter size within storms across western Pennsylvania.

Began near Kanes Creek (39.5035, -79.7545).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1338532. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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