Thunderstorms with heavy rainfall moved through Pendleton and Highland Counties on the evening of the 10th. In Pendleton County, high water closed a road in Franklin.
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Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS LWX wrote it up.
Thunderstorms with heavy rainfall moved through Pendleton and Highland Counties on the evening of the 10th. In Pendleton County, high water closed a road in Franklin. A total of 1.82 inches of rain was reported at Spruce Knob. In Hardy County, officials reported flooded roads and basements in Moorefield. A total of 3.63 inches was recorded at Devils Hole.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Baltimore/Washington wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 10, 1:30 PM EST, 4 hours 15 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 230 PM EDT SUN AUG 10 2003 .SHORT TERM(TONIGHT AND MONDAY)... COVERAGE MUCH LESS TODAY WHEN COMPARED TO RADAR OF 24 HOURS AGO. AIRMASS IS VIRTUALLY THE SAME WITH HIGH DEWPOINTS AND PWAT VALUES. EXPECT CONVECTION TO INCREASE SOME...AS SKY CONDITIONS IMPROVE/TEMPS RISE. UPPER SUPPORT FOR THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT NOT AS GOOD TODAY PER ETA/GFS AS YESTERDAY. UPPER DIVERGENCE/JET SUPPORT IS WEAKER. HOWEVER WHERE STORMS DEVELOP...THEY WILL STILL BE EFFICIENT RAIN PRODUCERS. FFG OVER PORTIONS OF VA AT 1.2/HR. THESE AREAS HAVE A FFA IN EFFECT THROUGH EARLY EVENING AND WILL LEAVE WATCH UP THROUGH MID EVENING. MORE FOG AND LOW CLOUDS EXPECTED LATE TONIGHT AND EARLY MONDAY. WILL CARRY 50 POPS ACROSS THE BOARD TONIGHT AND 40 TOMORROW. TEMPS A BLEND OF MET/MAV GUIDANCE. /CPW .LATER PERIODS...PTTN SHWS SIGNS OF EVENTUALLY BREAKING DWN. TIL THEN...PERSISTENCE REIGNS...W/ MAINLY AFTN-EVE SHRA/TSRA...OCNLY ENHANCED BY S/WVS PROPAGATING NWD ALNG STALLED BNDRY. AS RDGG INCRS HOLD ON AREA...AREAL CVRG WL BCM LESS. AS SUCH...WL STEP POPS DWN EACH AFTN-- 40 POPS TUE..30 WED..ETC. BY WED...H5 PTTN REMINISCENT OF SUMMER...W/ ATLC COAST INFLUENCED BY BERMUDA HIGH MORE THAN GRTLKS TROF. XTNDD...CUD IT BE? RDG CONTS TO BLDS ACRS CWFA...AND SUSTAINS ITSELF FOR THE WKND. AS MNTND IN HPC PREEPD...S/WV SWINGING THRU SAT APPRS ODD...AND WAS IGNORED. THAT MEANS SCT CLDS...TEMPS MORE SEASONABLE...AND MOST IMPORTANTLY NO MNTN OF POPS FOR 4 CONSECUTIVE DAYS. A 20 POP WAS KEPT IN THE GRIDS THU FOR CONTINUITY SAKE...WHICH ALSO FALLS IN LINE W/ STEP-DWN PHILOSOPHY ABV AS WELL AS CLIMO. WL REVISIT THIS ISSUE TMRW...AS RISING HGTS/WRMG TEMPS MAY CAP ANY CNVCTN. HTS .LWX... DC...NONE. MD...FLOOD WATCH THRU THIS EVE MDZ002>003. VA...FLOOD WATCH THRU THIS EVE VAZ021...VAZ025>031...VAZ036>037. WV...FLOOD WATCH THRU THIS EVE WVZ048>055. MARINE...NONE.
DCZ001-MDZ002>007-009>011-013-014-016>018-VAZ021-025>031-036>042- 050>057-WVZ048>055-110900- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 1045 AM EDT SUN AUG 10 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR MARYLAND WEST OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY AND EAST OF GARRETT COUNTY...THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA...NORTHERN VIRGINIA...THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL SHENANDOAH VALLEY...AND THE EASTERN PANHANDLE OF WEST VIRGINIA. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON A FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING FOR THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY AND FOOTHILLS. SIGNIFICANT RAINFALLS OVER THE PAST TWO DAYS HAVE LEFT SOIL CONDITIONS NEARLY SATURATED OVER THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY AND ADJACENT FOOTHILLS. MORE SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED. THE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING VERY HEAVY RAINFALL AND POSSIBLE FLOODING. SOME OF THE STRONGER THUNDERSTORMS COULD PRODUCE 2 TO 3 INCHES OF RAINFALL IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME WHICH WOULD BE SUFFICIENT TO CAUSE FLASH FLOODING. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN... NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED...BUT SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO FORWARD HEAVY RAINFALL OR FLOODING REPORTS TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING. CPW/MANNING
WVZ054-102300- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 557 PM EDT SUN AUG 10 2003 ...HEAVY RAIN IN WESTERN PENDLETON COUNTY... AT 6 PM...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A STATIONARY THUNDERSTORM IN WESTERN PENDLETON COUNTY ALONG THE WESTERN RIDGES. AREAS ALONG THE NORTH FORK RIDGE AND THE NORTH FORK OF THE SOUTH BRANCH OF THE POTOMAC RIVER SHOULD EXPECT VERY HEAVY RAIN BETWEEN 6 AND 7 PM AND RAPID RIVER RISES. BE ALERT DRIVING IN WESTERN PENDLETON COUNTY AS HEAVY RAIN MAY PRODUCE SMALL LANDSLIDES OVER THE ROAD AND WATER OVER THE ROAD. STRONG
WVZ054-102330- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC 630 PM EDT SUN AUG 10 2003 ...STRONG THUNDERSTORM MOVING INTO CENTRAL PENDLETON COUNTY... AT 6:30 PM...DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A STRONG THUNDERSTORM ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM SENECA ROCKS TO HARPER...MOVING SLOWLY NORTHEAST TOWARDS CENTRAL PENDLETON COUNTY AT 10 MPH. THIS STORM WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING SMALL HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO 40 MPH. THE COMMUNITIES OF FRANKLIN AND UPPER TRACT WILL BE AFFECTED BY THIS STORM THROUGH 7:30 PM. STRONG
The Sterling radar (KLWX), 165 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:43 UTC.
2 flash flood. Local standard time, as filed.
A road was closed by flooding in Franklin.
Several roads and basements were flooded.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in West Virginia in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in West Virginia, August 2003
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5335877, 5335878.