EF1 tornado in Wirt County, West Virginia

Tree damage occured along portions of State Route 5 about 3.5 miles eastsoutheast of Palestine. Numerous hardwoods were topped halfway down their trunks. Several very large softwoods were either topped or uprooted. The orientation of the damage conformed to a converging wind flow. The maximum wind gust of 100 mph was estimated. The maximum width was around 175 yards. A brick chimney became detached from a house and collapsed. A few small outbuildings were also destroyed. Power outages were common.

A cold front, in tandem with strong mid and upper level forcing, produced a severe weather outbreak in southeast Ohio into extreme western West Virginia during the late afternoon and evening of Thursday the 16th. The setup featured a 45 knot mid level flow and a 95 knot upper level jet. Matter of fact, a larger area of showers, associated with a warm front, had moved across southeast Ohio and West Virginia during the morning and midday hours. This kept the surface based instability at a minimum. However, new cells formed further west during the mid afternoon over western Ohio. It was this new cluster of convection that would intensify due to the strong mid and upper level dynamics. Several of the new cells formed and intensified on the southern or southwestern flank of the overall larger area of showers and thunderstorms. This area of convection stretched further to the northeast into eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. This allowed an unimpeded low level moisture inflow into the new development. Surface dew points ahead of the cold front reached into the mid 60s.

Most of the severe thunderstorms exhibited strong rotation, resulting in the spawning of 5 tornadoes. Four of these 5 tornadoes were in southeast Ohio. One of the 4 Ohio tornadoes crossed from Fairfield County into western Perry County. Another 1 of the 4 crossed from Perry into northwestern Morgan County. One tornado patch was solely in Athens County. Finally, the last of the 4 tornadoes in Ohio crossed the Ohio River from northeastern Meigs County into southern Wood County in West Virginia. This tornado was the strongest and resulted in a fatality on the West Virginia side of the Ohio River. The last direct death from a tornado in West Virginnia was back in June of 1982. Finally, the last short tornado path in this outbreak was solely in western West Virginia, located in Wirt County.