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F2 tornado in Wood County, West Virginia

Tornado July 10, 2003 · Wood County, West Virginia

F2
Rating
2.5 mi
Path length
250 yd
Path width
$1.5M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado first touched down along Raymond Street near Lubeck. Several homes were damaged here, including a brick garage, which had its roof thrown a couple hundred feet into neighboring homes. The tornado continued northeast along Smitherman Road, where it intensified to F2 strength. Eight homes were damaged at his time, including 2 homes with their roofs lifted off and thrown several hundred feet. More homes were damaged as the tornado cross Lake Washington Road. One resident took shelter in a basement bathroom. When she opened the door after the storm, there was nothing but daylight. Six RV trailers were overturned at a dealership. The tornado crossed White Acres Road damaging 6 homes. One attached garage was ripped away from a house. The tornado weakened as it crossed Route 892. Trees were mangled near Jewell Road. The storm crossed Island View Drive, but no houses suffered any significant damage. All total, on the order of 30 homes and a couple of businesses sustained damage, with a half dozen homes destroyed. About 15 power poles were snapped. Luckily, no fatalities or injuries occurred.

The wider storm

A potent squall line developed during the early afternoon across central Ohio, on southwest to central Kentucky. This was along a prefrontal surface boundary, and well out ahead of a strong cold front. The atmosphere warmed into the 80s with surface dew points in the 70 to 75 degree range. Additional thunderstorms formed into a broken west to east line across West Virginia, ahead of the squall line. This caused flooding problems. After 1500E, the squall line accelerated eastward, moving near 50 mph. As a result of this event, a few more counties, such as Ritchie and Harrison, were added to FEMA's disaster declaration number 1474. This federal disaster was initiated during the month of June.

Began near Lubeck (39.2500, -81.6500).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5379216. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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