Hail and Damaging Winds in West Virginia, June 26, 1998

Thunderstorm winds blew numerous trees down across the city. At Fairmont State College, downed trees fell onto homes, causing minor damage. A tree also fell onto a parked automobile. This episode was the first of several days of severe thunderstorms which brought damaging winds and torrential rains to much of east-central Ohio, western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia during the period of June 26-30. These storms caused eight deaths and several injuries, along with millions of dollars of damage across the region. High pressure anchored over the Tennessee Valley contributed to the northward transport of a tropical airmass into eastern Ohio by the afternoon of June 26th. Explosive thunderstorm development on the afternoon of June 26th over northeast Ohio and western Pennsylvania formed a Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) by late afternoon. As this MCS propagated slowly to the southeast during the evening, it left behind a northwest-to-southeast oriented outflow boundary. This boundary remained nearly stationary for over 36 hours and served to focus waves of thunderstorms from the evening of June 26th through the early morning hours of June 28th across eastern Ohio, western Pennsylvania, and northern West Virginia. On June 29th and 30th, severe thunderstorms moving rapidly through the area from the northwest brought damaging straight-line winds of up to 85 MPH across the region. The accompanying heavy rainfall with these storms only worsened the flooding conditions across the tri-state area.

Thunderstorm winds blew several large tree limbs down.

Thunderstorm winds blew several large tree limbs down.

Thunderstorm winds blew several large trees down.

Thunderstorm winds blew several large trees down.

Thunderstorm winds blew three large trees down.

Thunderstorm winds blew several trees down, some onto State Route 26.