EF3 Tornado — Wayne, West Virginia

2012-03-02 · near Glenhayes, Wayne, West Virginia

Event narrative

The tornado crossed the Tug Fork River from Lawrence County, Kentucky and enter Wayne County. Numerous trees were blown down near Glenhayes. The tornado passed between Dunlow and Radnor, then into the Kiahsville and Cove Gap vicinity along Route 37. In the Dunlow vicinity, the damage was from hilltop to hilltop, just over a half mile wide. In that vicinity, about 5 homes were destroyed with 1 sustaining major damage. At least 3 vehicles were damaged in Dunlow. The East Lynn Lake campground vicinity saw toppled trees and damage to electric and phone lines. Approximately 15 homes were destroyed with 7 sustaining major damage around Kiahsville and Cove Gap. The homes included mobile homes and manufactured structures. A 2 story house lost its roof, plus several of the outside walls and an interior wall. The hillsides and narrow roads were littered with uprooted trees, tangled power lines, sheets of metal roofing, and damaged vehicles. A resident near Cove Gap said, we never thought anything like this would get in here. It got in and it didn't want to leave. I guess it wasn't here that long, but it seemed like forever.

Ironically, it may have been a local funeral that saved lives. A funeral was being held in the community of Wayne that evening for a local Cove Gap resident. Several neighbors attended the funeral and were not at home when the storm hit. When they returned, they found their homes damaged. The tornado then traveled into Lincoln County where it weakened and finally dissipated.

A maximum wind speed of 138 mph was estimated by the survey team in the Dunlow vicinity, resulting in a low end EF3 rating.

Wider weather episode

A deepening low pressure system was lifting northeast out of central Illinois around midday on Friday, the 2nd. It reached southern Michigan by evening. By late afternoon its associated warm front had pulled north into central Ohio and into central West Virginia near Charleston. Some small hail fell with the warm front across southern West Virginia during the late morning hours. The warm front struggled to move much further to the northeast. This left eastern Kentucky in the warm sector. During the late afternoon, surface dew points increased into the upper 50s in eastern Kentucky and into the lower 60s across southern Kentucky. This was ahead of the approaching cold front.

Severe thunderstorms, including distinct supercells, moved into eastern Kentucky just before sunset. One of those supercells produced a long lived tornado that moved into Wayne County from Lawrence County, Kentucky. The tornado crossed the Tug Fork River near Glen Hayes and moved through the Dunlow, Kiahsville, Cove Gap vicinity. It weakened and disispated in Lincoln County. It was the same storm that had hit West Liberty, Kentucky earlier. A shorter track tornado formed a short time later from a separate cell, affecting portions of Lincoln County.

Another tornado with a long track, crossed the Tug Fork River near Kermit before weakening and lifting in Mingo County. This is the first recorded tornado for Mingo County. This was same supercell thunderstorm that had hit the Salyersville, Kentucky vicinity earlier.

Flooding was also a significant problem. The warm frontal rain kept the ground saturated. The early evening thunderstorms then dumped around 1.5 inches in 3 hours, causing flash flooding on streams, mainly in Wayne and Lincoln Counties.

In Lincoln County, the total damage from the 2 tornado paths plus the flash flooding was 1 house destroyed, 5 homes with major damage, and 8 others with minor damage.

Around 2,300 customers lost electricity in Wayne County, with another 2000 in Lincoln County.

In the aftermath, a few residents around Charleston, including the Kanawha County community of Tornado, found paper envelopes, cancelled checks, and pictures around their property, that had fallen from the sky. The items were from the West Liberty, Kentucky vicinity.

This event was included with the 29th of February episode as a federal disaster. Around 130 West Virginia National Guard troops were used in the field during the course of this federal disaster. See FEMA disaster number 4059 for additional details.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.0334, -82.5354)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 366030. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.