EF1 tornado, Maken to Wilsonburg, West Virginia, June 23, 2017

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 23, 2017

Touchdown

7:58 PM EDT (23:58 UTC)

Lifted

8:04 PM EDT (00:04 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

4.4 miles (7.1 km)

Path width

400 yards (366 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$300,000

County

Harrison County

Touchdown point

39.264, -80.480

Lift-off point

39.279, -80.400

Record number

1706231758-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS RLX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The highest wind the damage implies is 74 mph.

• Tree top twisted off. Blow down to the ENE

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

Tropical Storm Cindy made landfall in southwestern Louisiana on the 22nd. The storm weakened after making landfall and became post tropical as it moved through the Mississippi and lower Ohio River Valleys into the 23rd. At the same time, a strong cold front was moving eastward across the Midwest and western Great Lakes. The remnants of Cindy passed through the eastern portions of the Ohio River Basin during the evening of the 23rd. The tropical moisture and energy associated with the remnants combined with the lift of the approaching cold front to produce a large area of heavy rainfall. The area of the heaviest rain stretched along the Middle Ohio River Valley, from central and northeastern Kentucky into southeastern Ohio and western and central portions of West Virginia.||Central and western West Virginia received generally 1 to 3 inches of rainfall, with generally less than an inch falling in the eastern mountains and southern coal fields. Some of the highest measurements occurred in Wayne and Cabell Counties. The automated weather station at the Tri-State/Huntington Airport measured 2.72 inches of rain, and a CoCoRaHS observer near downtown Huntington received 2.67. The official observation at the National Weather Service office in Charleston was 2.08 inches. The Wood County/Parkersburg Airport received 2.31 inches while 2.13 inches was measured at Benedum Airport near Clarskburg.||The spin in the atmosphere and fast wind flow just above the ground, both related to the remnants of Cindy, led to isolated damaging wind gusts across the state and even some tornado damage near Clarksburg.

Damage consistent with an EF-1 tornado and estimated maximum wind speeds of 110 mph was found by a National Weather Service storm survey. Many trees were snapped or uprooted along the path of the tornado. Near the start of the path along Shaws Run Road, a cinder block garage partially collapsed. The structure was under construction and the trusses had not even been installed yet, so it was just 4 walls with an open top. The house on the same property had some minor roof damage. Across the street, an old wood barn suffered a full collapse and the eastern wall blew out on two-story single family house. About a mile and a half farther along the path, along Gawthorp Lane, a house received significant roof damage, with about 20 percent of the roof decking and shingles removed, a small shed was also destroyed. Just down the block from here, a resident recalls that she had just arrived home when she heard a rush of wind. Her front window blew in as she ran for shelter deeper in the house. She remembers it being over in an instant and when she came back into the front room she could see her SUV flipped on its top in the neighbors yard, across the street from where she had parked it just minutes before. The tornado continued along just south of Sun Valley Road, with a lot of tree and power line damage along Old Davisson Run Road. Toward the end of the tornado path, damage was much lighter with just small trees and branches down near the intersection of Sun Valley Road and US 50.

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

26 minutes of warning. NWS RLX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:32 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:22 UTC and running to 02:00 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 19:36 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.

Clarksburg/Benedum (CKB), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 141 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:54 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 2017 tornado in West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.