EF1 tornado, Martinsburg, West Virginia, June 8, 2014

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

June 8, 2014

Touchdown

8:41 PM EDT (00:41 UTC)

Lifted

8:44 PM EDT (00:44 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

Crop damage

$10,000

County

Berkeley County

Touchdown point

39.456, -77.981

Lift-off point

39.451, -77.964

Record number

1406081841-01

A cold front approached the Mid Atlantic and southerly winds increased dew points across the region. Instability increased across the region and showers and thunderstorms moved across eastern WV and western Maryland. Some thunderstorms were capable of damaging winds.

The tornado was estimated to have touched down around 841 PM EDT near the 1100 Block of Carolina Street, where it lifted off a 10 foot by 20 food section of front porch roof of a residence. This roof panel came to rest on the top of the same house. The tornado continued moving east producing scattered tree damage. Two trees fell on a house near Porter Street and South Kentucky Avenue. More tree damage, large limbs from topped trees was found in an area bounded by Winchester Ave, South Raleigh Street and Silver Lane and East South Street.||After crossing South Raleigh Street, the most concentrated storm damage was found. Dozens of trees were either topped or snapped on the grounds of Historic Boydville Manor in the 600 Block South Queen Street. A large HVAC panel from a nearby business was found embedded in the ground behind a cottage located on the grounds of the manor. Two eyewitness accounts there confirmed hearing a loud freight train noise at the time of the damage and reported high winds blowing from different directions. At these locations, peak winds were estimated at 90 mph and the tornado was its widest at approximately 100 yards.||After crossing South Queen Street, several large trees were topped between Queen Street and the railroad tracks and along either side of East Addition Street. From this point no further damage east of the railroad tracks was observed by the survey team. The tornado was estimated to have quickly lifted around 844 PM EDT...a total of three minutes on the ground.

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

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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 Sterling radar (KLWX), 68 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:39 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 2014 tornado in West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.