Tornadoes · United States · West Virginia · 1974

F1 tornado, Barbour County, West Virginia, April 4, 1974

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Barbour County on April 4, 1974, touching down at 5:25 AM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

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

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    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. F3158 to 206 mph

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

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

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

  6. F5261 to 318 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
April 4, 1974
Touchdown
5:25 AM EDT (09:25 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Barbour County
Touchdown point
37.770, -81.170
Record number
247

The air that afternoon

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.

Huntington/Tri S, WV (KHTS), 00:00Z

9.4 hours before the tornado, 134 km from the path. April 4, 1974.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Huntington/Tri S, WV at 00:00Z on 1974-04-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 9 joules per kilogram, CIN -205, lifted condensation level 2698 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Huntington/Tri S, WV at 00:00Z on 1974-04-04The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 121 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
9 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-205 J/kg
Surface CAPE
7 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2698 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
121 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
357 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
8.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Huntington/Tri S, WV (KHTS), 12:00Z

2.6 hours after it, 134 km from the path. April 4, 1974.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Huntington/Tri S, WV at 12:00Z on 1974-04-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 35 joules per kilogram, CIN -44, lifted condensation level 1016 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Huntington/Tri S, WV at 12:00Z on 1974-04-04The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 69 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 88 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
35 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-44 J/kg
Surface CAPE
285 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1016 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
88 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
69 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
190 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1974 tornado in West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 4, 1974

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 42:30 AM EDTF0Anderson, TN8.7200$500 to $5,000
April 43:00 AM EDTF0Jefferson, TN4.527$5,000 to $50,000
April 43:20 AM EDTF1Dickenson, VA7.317$50,000 to $500,000
April 43:21 AM EDTF0Lee, VA8.617$50 to $500
April 43:30 AM EDTF0Hawkins, TN0.527$500 to $5,000
April 43:00 AM CDTF0Sullivan, TN to VA18.02,5002$50,000 to $500,000
April 44:05 AM EDTF1McDowell, WV0.110$500,000 to $5 million
April 44:16 AM EDTF1Wyoming, WV4.9109$500,000 to $5 million
April 44:20 AM EDTF3Raleigh, WV9.21012$500,000 to $5 million
April 44:26 AM EDTF3Raleigh, WV32.210111$500,000 to $5 million
April 45:00 AM EDTF3Washington, VA8.417714$50,000 to $500,000
April 45:00 AM EDTF0Summers, WV0.110$500 to $5,000
April 46:40 AM EDTF1Augusta, VA15.217$500,000 to $5 million
April 47:00 AM EDTF2City of Roanoke, VA6.5177$500,000 to $5 million
April 49:00 AM EDTF2Caldwell, NC5.710$50,000 to $500,000
April 49:00 AM EDTF0Cherokee, NC9.710$5,000 to $50,000
April 44:25 PM CDTF0Dale, AL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
April 46:00 PM CDTF1Houston, AL0.110$5,000 to $50,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.