EF2 tornado, Washington and Ritchie counties, Ohio and West Virginia, July 21, 2026

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating, as surveyed

EF2, preliminary

Date

July 21, 2026

Touchdown

4:25 PM EDT (20:25 UTC)

Lifted

4:48 PM EDT (20:48 UTC)

On the ground

23 minutes

Path length

12.9 miles (20.8 km)

Path width

1,000 yards (914 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Washington and Ritchie counties

Touchdown point

39.409, -81.266

Lift-off point

39.323, -81.053

Highest wind the damage implies

130 mph

Surveyed by

NWS RLX

The office's name for it

Washington to Pleasants #2

Survey last edited

August 4, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

The tornado began between Newells Run Rd and Kerr Run Rd, where numerous trees were uprooted and snapped before tracking southeast through Newport, where some minor damage occurred to homes and some sporadic tree damage was noted. The tornado then strengthened as it crossed the Ohio River and entered the West Virginia side at the Saint Marys Bridge. A large sign was left barely hanging off the side of the bridge structure and a large patch of trees around the bridge showed significant damage. From there, the tornado tracked southeast up the hillside reaching peak intensity and a high end EF2 rating near the intersection of Greens Run Rd and Rt 16 where several homes suffered significant damage, a roughly 600 yard wide by 300 yard long patch of hardwood trees was leveled, and a large communications tower was buckled over. The tornado path then became intermittent as it skipped basically along Rt 16 to the Cloverdale community, then ended near the Ritchie County line east of Rock Run Rd.

Thanks to the Washington County, OH Sheriff's Office and Emergency Management Agency, who provided excellent video of the track taken by their drone. Also, thanks to Tyler County, WV Search and Rescue for also providing drone imagery and an aerial survey of the track in West Virginia.

Written by NWS RLX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

115 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS RLX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• Large patch of trees snapped around Saint Marys Bridge
• Large bridge sign ripped off
• Not the best pictures but there was a large patch of pine trees that were mowed down in this area with trunks snapped.
• Estimated edge to tornado damage.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:15 UTC and running to 23:30 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Parkersburg (PKB), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 127 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:27 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

35 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.