A low pressure system moved into the Ohio Valley on the evening of April 10th with showers and thunderstorms developing ahead of the front. A funnel cloud was observed by a trained spotter near Bulaville late that afternoon and persisted for two minutes.
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The episode as NWS RLX wrote it up.
A low pressure system moved into the Ohio Valley on the evening of April 10th with showers and thunderstorms developing ahead of the front. A funnel cloud was observed by a trained spotter near Bulaville late that afternoon and persisted for two minutes.
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 Charleston, WV wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 10, 4:37 PM EST, 2 hours 19 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION National Weather Service Charleston WV 537 PM EDT Sat Apr 10 2021 .SYNOPSIS... Frontal system today with showers and isolated thunderstorms possible. Persistent upper level low pressure and slightly cooler air dominates much of the week. && .NEAR TERM /THROUGH SUNDAY/... As of 530 PM Saturday... Quick update to take out thunder with this prefrontal axis of rain and to decrease gusts once the rain begins. Will be watching the line of convection developing along the front across Indiana which may come close to Perry/Vinton this evening as it pivots northeastward. Elsewhere, poor thermodynamic profiles will continue to limit thunder potential within the frontal band this evening. However, shear magnitude remains strong enough within a low level veering regime, to support weak rotation within the frontal band...primarily across southeast OH. Across the mountains, models suggest a surface wave may develop along the front on the lee side which will serve to briefly enhance the rainfall rates coinciding with a strengthening LLJ. As of 237 PM Saturday... A low pressure system in the mid Mississippi Valley will move to the NNE across IL/IN tonight and will becoming increasingly occluded with time. Ahead of this system, a band of mostly rain is pivoting northeastward across the Ohio Valley and coverage of this precipitation is expected to increase through the remainder of the day and into the evening hours as moisture advection increases into the area. Overall lightning activity so far has been fairly limited as instability values are rather weak with latest SPC mesoanalysis showing only about 500 J/kg of SBCAPE across the region. While it isn't out of the question for instability values to reach a bit higher, perhaps closer to 1000 J/kg, overall chances of too much more destabilization should be limited as thicker cloud cover continues to spread across the area so thinking this will be mainly rain showers with occasional pockets of embedded storms. That said, deep layer shear values of about 35 kts should support at least some organization with perhaps some multicell clusters developing later today into the evening, particularly ahead of the cold front passage tonight where a 50 kt LLJ pivots into the area. Thus, can't completely rule out a few stronger showers/storms this evening with an isolated damaging wind threat being the primary hazard so SPC has our entire forecast area in a Marginal risk for severe storms with the activity through this evening. Any showers and storms across the area should taper off after roughly 06Z Sunday as the cold front pushes to the east and a dry slot moves in. However, precipitation is expected to increase in coverage from the west Sunday afternoon and evening as an upper level low meanders to the northwest of the area but highest PoPs will be across southeast OH where the greatest lift is expected to be given the proximity to the cooler temperatures aloft. Otherwise, it will be much cooler on Sunday with highs in the mid 60s across much of the lowlands and mid 50s in the mountains, but most areas will still be at or just above normal for this time of the year. In addition, it is also expected to be a rather breezy day with deeply mixed profiles which may support occasional gusts out of the SW of about 20-25 mph, but some stronger gusts can't be ruled out either. && .SHORT TERM /SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT/... As of 155 PM Saturday... Seeing an unusual amount of disagreement between the models for Sunday night through Monday night. The problems originate from the handling of an upper level low lifting into the Great Lakes region and how energy dropping down from western Canada interacts with this low. GFS, ECMWF and the Canadian try to merge the energy from the two systems to create a very elongated upper low. The NAM keeps the system more distinct and separate. As you can imagine, this creates very different forecasts for our region based on the handling of this energy, leading to unusually low confidence in the short term package. && .LONG TERM /TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY/... As of 1205 PM Saturday... Models showing cooler air moving into the area behind a cold front for Tuesday into Wednesday. The position of an upper level low pressure center remains in question however, leading to some uncertainty whether it might brush the region with some precipitation or not. The upper level pattern between the models diverges even further for Thursday through Saturday. This leads to a low confidence in the forecast, although all models are indicating a cooler pattern persisting for the area. && .AVIATION /21Z SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY/... As of 118 PM Saturday... A band of showers and some embedded storms will pivot northeastward across the area through the remainder of the afternoon and evening hours well ahead of a low pressure system in the Midwest. As precipitation activity increases in coverage today, flight conditions are expected to deteriorate with ceilings lowering to MVFR or possibly worse. In addition, precipitation activity will likely result in at least occasional vsby restrictions. The majority of precipitation activity should taper off by about 06Z/Sunday as drier air filters into the area, but lingering low level moisture may keep low clouds across the region overnight, particularly near the mountains where some MVFR ceilings will be possible. Otherwise, ceilings should gradually lift on Sunday morning as deep mixing develops which should bring a return to VFR conditions to much of the area. However, MVFR restrictions may start to approach the region by the end of the period from the northwest as an upper low lingers near the Great Lakes. In addition, the deep mixing on Sunday should also create for rather gusty conditions with winds out of the SW gusting to 20 kts or more at all terminals during the day. FORECAST CONFIDENCE AND ALTERNATE SCENARIOS THROUGH 18Z SUNDAY... FORECAST CONFIDENCE: Medium. ALTERNATE SCENARIOS: Timing of TSRA this afternoon and evening may differ from TAFs. Visibilities may drop into the IFR/LIFR range in heavier showers and/or storms. EXPERIMENTAL TABLE OF FLIGHT CATEGORY OBJECTIVELY SHOWS CONSISTENCY OF WFO FORECAST TO AVAILABLE MODEL INFORMATION: H = HIGH: TAF CONSISTENT WITH ALL MODELS OR ALL BUT ONE MODEL. M = MEDIUM: TAF HAS VARYING LEVEL OF CONSISTENCY WITH MODELS. L = LOW: TAF INCONSISTENT WITH ALL MODELS OR ALL BUT ONE MODEL. UTC 1HRLY 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 EDT 1HRLY 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 00 01 02 03 04 CRW CONSISTENCY H H M H M H H H H H H H HTS CONSISTENCY H M H H M H H H H H H H BKW CONSISTENCY H L M H H H L H H H H H EKN CONSISTENCY H H H H H H H H H M H H PKB CONSISTENCY H H H H H H H H M H H H CKB CONSISTENCY H H H H H H H H H M H M AFTER 18Z SUNDAY... No widespread IFR expected. && .RLX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... WV...None. OH...None. KY...None. VA...None. && SYNOPSIS...RPY/RG NEAR TERM...30/RG SHORT TERM...RPY LONG TERM...RPY AVIATION...RG
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Charleston WV 344 AM EDT Sat Apr 10 2021 KYZ101>103-105-OHZ066-067-075-076-083>087-VAZ003-004-WVZ005>011- 013>020-024>034-039-040-515>526-110745- Greenup-Carter-Boyd-Lawrence KY-Perry-Morgan-Athens-Washington- Jackson OH-Vinton-Meigs-Gallia-Lawrence OH-Dickenson-Buchanan-Wayne- Cabell-Mason-Jackson WV-Wood-Pleasants-Tyler-Lincoln-Putnam-Kanawha- Roane-Wirt-Calhoun-Ritchie-Doddridge-Mingo-Logan-Boone-Clay-Braxton- Gilmer-Lewis-Harrison-Taylor-McDowell-Wyoming-Upshur-Barbour- Northwest Raleigh-Southeast Raleigh-Northwest Fayette- Southeast Fayette-Northwest Nicholas-Southeast Nicholas- Northwest Webster-Southeast Webster-Northwest Pocahontas- Southeast Pocahontas-Northwest Randolph-Southeast Randolph- 344 AM EDT Sat Apr 10 2021 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for northeast Kentucky, southeast Ohio, southwest Virginia and much of West Virginia. .DAY ONE...Today and Tonight. There is a marginal risk for severe thunderstorms for this afternoon into this evening. The main threat expected will be damaging winds. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Sunday through Friday. No hazardous weather is expected at this time. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Weather spotters are encouraged to report significant weather conditions by calling the toll-free spotter hotline, or by other methods detailed at www.weather.gov/rlx/reports.
The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:53 UTC.
1 funnel cloud. Local standard time, as filed.
A funnel cloud was observed by a trained spotter near Bulaville and persisted for two minutes. This area of rotation had spawned a wall cloud earlier in the evening near the Huntington Airport in West Virginia.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Ohio in 2021Every state in 2021This day in weather historyWarnings in Ohio, April 2021
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: 953010.