EF1 tornado, Richwood to Leonard, West Virginia, June 21, 2016

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 21, 2016

Touchdown

3:00 PM EDT (19:00 UTC)

Lifted

3:09 PM EDT (19:09 UTC)

On the ground

9 minutes

Path length

5.4 miles (8.7 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

Counties

Nicholas and Greenbrier counties

Touchdown point

38.270, -80.504

Lift-off point

38.229, -80.419

Record number

1606211300-01

16 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS RLX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• trees snapped. limbs twisted.
• Tree trunk twisted and snapped
• 100 to 150 yards wide. At least 1/4 to 1/2 mile long path
• house shingles ripped off. trees snapped

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

Scattered thunderstorms formed during the late morning and early afternoon across extreme southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and central and southern West Virginia. This was in the muggy summer air, south of a slow moving cold front. The thunderstorms formed into a broken line by 1500E. A few cells pulsed to severe limits. A tornado even occurred over the mountainous terrain in eastern Nicholas County. Downpours were common. Closer to the surface front, a few additional cells formed in northern West Virginia during the evening hours. One of those storms even had a brief tornado in Barbour County.

A cold front was located from West Virginia into Pennsylvania. To the south of this boundary, unstable air was in placed with CAPES ranging from 1500-2000 j/kg. This unstable air mass, combined with moderate mid level shear, triggered a few severe thunderstorms in southeast West Virginia. One of the storms that developed near the cold front produced an EF-1 tornado that moved out of Nicholas County and tracked across Summit Lake Campground in Greenbrier County. This was only the seventh documented tornado in Greenbrier County since 1950, and the first since 1990.

The maximum wind speed was estimated at 107 mph by a National Weather Survey team. The damage swath consisted mostly of hardwood trees that were downed and snapped along Country Club Road approximately 3 miles northeast of Richwood. There were also wooden utility poles that were snapped, along with some shingle damage to 1 home. The tornado and tree damage continued into Greenbrier County just south of Summit Lake.

This tornado developed in Nicholas County, WV from near the Cherry Hill Country Club and tracked southeast before crossing into northern Greenbrier County (see Storm Data for NWS Charleston for more information on the beginning portion of this tornado) at approximately 1505 EST near Summit Lake Campground. The EF-1 tornado crossed County Road 3915 and Highway 55 before lifting. Most of damage was to hundreds of mainly hardwood trees that were snapped or uprooted. A few shingles were take off one structure.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS RLX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:58 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:08 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:01 UTC and running to 22:00 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 16:30 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.

Lewisburg/Greenbrie (LWB), 44 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), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:56 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 2016 tornado in West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.