EF1 tornado, Coe, West Virginia, April 27, 2011

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 mphthis tornado

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. 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

EF1

Date

April 27, 2011

Touchdown

10:58 PM EDT (02:58 UTC)

Lifted

11:00 PM EDT (03:00 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$6,000

Crop damage

$15,000

County

Nicholas County

Touchdown point

38.295, -80.527

Lift-off point

38.300, -80.510

Record number

1104272058-01

West Virginia was on the northern fringe of the large severe weather outbreak that occurred across the southern states, northeast into Virginia. ||A strengthening low pressure center tracked from Arkansas to Ohio. A strong wind flow exists aloft. ||During most of the daylight hours on the 27th, the convection remained weak in West Virginia. As mid and upper level dynamics increased late in the afternoon and early evening, a large area of showers streaked northeast into West Virginia. Heavier convection was embedded on the southeastern inflow flank of this large area of rain. This affected the mountainous counties.||Wind damage was common in Raleigh County into Randolph County. The most damage was in the city of Elkins from straight line winds. A short lived tornado was confirmed in Nicholas County. ||Due to the wet ground, stream flooding was a concern. Strong rises occurred on streams and headwater rivers, but luckily no significant flooding occurred.

North of Richwood, a brief tornado skipped along the mountainside and the Cranberry River Valley. This was along Forest Road 76. The elevation above sea level was around 2300 to 2400 feet. Trees were blown down as well as snapped off above the ground. Maximum wind gusts near 110 mph were estimated by the survey team. One camper and a few trucks were damaged by fallen trees. This area is timbered, so crop damage was estimated.||This was the first confirmed tornado in Nicholas County since 1969.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

24 minutes of warning. NWS RLX issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:34 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:43 UTC and running to 05:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:50 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.

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:58 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 2011 tornado in West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

209 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 210 of them

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.

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