EF2 tornado in Mingo County, West Virginia

A tornado coming out of Martin County Kentucky crossed over the Tug Fork River and lifted just as it entered West Virginia.

The tornado hit a ridge line just south of Kermit. Several trees were blown down. Debris was carried over the river from the Lovely vicinity of Martin County and scattered on the mountainside and across Route 52. The tornado was lifting but still came in contact with a railroad communication tower. The tower was 280 feet tall with a base elevation of 1380 feet above mean sea level. The free standing tower was fully collapsed over the back side of the ridge. It was determined that the tornado destroyed the tower before completely lifting up and dissipating. Winds of 125 mph were estimated.

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.