EF0 tornado, Ripley, West Virginia, June 26, 2015

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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 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

EF0

Date

June 26, 2015

Touchdown

7:28 PM EDT (23:28 UTC)

Lifted

7:31 PM EDT (23:31 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.4 miles (2.2 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Jackson County

Touchdown point

38.832, -81.677

Lift-off point

38.815, -81.664

Record number

1506261728-01

57 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS RLX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• three dead pines took lines down
• pine snapped near ground. took down lines and snapped pole
• Lots of relatively minor tree damage with leaning small trees, limbs and branches down.
• Trees snapped and uprooted, mainly laying east and northeast.

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

During the afternoon of the 26th, a low pressure system was organizing over the lower Ohio River. Meanwhile, ahead of that system, a frontal boundary stretched east through southern Ohio and central West Virginia. ||Thunderstorms formed along the frontal boundary in southern Ohio, with more widespread rain north of the front. Those thunderstorms moved slightly south of east into western West Virginia. One of the leading storms was severe with mid level rotation. It pulsed to its strongest level near Ripley of Jackson County. This caused widespread tree damage from Ripley east along Route 33. One brief EF0 was also declared from a storm survey. The strongest winds were estimated with the downburst winds rather than the tornado.||Repetitive thunderstorms and showers affected northern Mason County and central Jackson County. Downpours occurred. An automatic gauge at Mason in Mason County measured 1.88 in the hour from 1730 to 1830E. Its total in 3 hours was 2.55 inches. The Ripley water plant measured 2.23 inches, most of which fell in a hour.||One location along the headwaters of Stationcamp Run along Route 5/13 saw large hail, followed by severe wind gusts. The downpour then caused flash flooding in the same location.

Amidst a large field on damaging wind gusts, a small tornado occurred during the downpour. The estimated peak wind gust was 80 mph. It started near Sycamore Road or Route 21/22. Trees and limbs were found to be laying in multiple directions. Convergence was noted in a corn field. A roof of a small cattle shelter was found about 125 feet northwest of the main structure.||The tornado then continued southeast over forested hills. The last confirmed damage occurred near Joes Run Memorial Church at the intersection of Deer Walk and Route 33. Fallen trees here again indicated a tight circulation. Minor damage was done to the church. The cross on the top of the steeple was bent and some fascia was removed.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS RLX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:24 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:43 UTC and running to 06:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 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), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:28 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 2015 tornado in West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

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.