Alert archive / West Virginia / Tornado Warnings

Tornado Warnings in West Virginia, 2020

3 tornado warnings in 2020. An alert counts here when it covered any part of the state, so the counties below add up to more than the state. The archive of tornado warnings reaches back to 1986.

Tornado Warnings by county

Each county as a circle sized by its count in 2020. Tap one for its archive.

Tornado Warnings
3
Busiest month
March1 tornado warnings
Busiest day
March 28, 20201 tornado warnings

Over time

By month

Warning verification

How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.

0 of 3 tornado warnings covering West Virginia in 2020 had a tornado report inside them.

West Virginia, 2020

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
Tornado warnings30100%0

Each office's whole area, 2020

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
NWS Baltimore/Washington: tornado warnings27678%1547%9 min
NWS Pittsburgh, PA: tornado warnings10370%838%4 min
NWS Charleston, WV: tornado warnings80100%10%
NWS Blacksburg, VA: tornado warnings110100%10%

An office's figures cover every county it serves, including across state lines.

Verified by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's Cow, which matches each storm-based warning with the local storm reports inside its polygon while it was in force, within 15 km of its edge: a tornado warning counts as verified on a tornado report, a severe thunderstorm warning on hail of 1 inch or more, a gust of 58 mph or more, or wind damage, a flash flood warning on a flash flood report. The false alarm ratio is the share of warnings with no such report; "inside a warning" is the probability of detection, the share of reports that fell inside one; lead time runs from the warning's issue to each report inside it, counting zero for a report that came first. A warning with no report is not proof nothing happened: reports come from spotters, the public and damage surveys, and are thin where few people live.

The alerts

Every alert, in the order issued. Times are local, Eastern Time. Each opens its own page with the text, the map, the radar and the sounding.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Mar 28, 3:40 PM EDTTornado WarningPBZBrooke, Hancock35 min
Apr 8, 1:54 PM EDTTornado WarningRLXFayette, Raleigh26 min
Jun 10, 8:43 PM EDTTornado WarningRLXMason32 min

By county

Every county with at least one alert. A county page lists each alert that covered it.

The busiest days

Days with the most alerts issued, by UTC date.

Nearby

Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordThe radar archive20192021

Sources

National Weather Service watches, warnings, advisories and statements from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's VTEC archive, which reconstructs tornado, severe thunderstorm, flash flood and marine warnings back to 1986 from the NWS text archive. Storm Prediction Center watches and mesoscale discussions from SPC's archive through the Mesonet. County centers from the US Census Bureau. Warning verification from the Mesonet's Cow. Rebuilt daily.