EF0 tornado, Bunker Hill to Vanclevesville, West Virginia, June 5, 2024

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 5, 2024

Touchdown

4:29 PM EDT (20:29 UTC)

Lifted

4:34 PM EDT (20:34 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.7 miles (2.7 km)

Path width

110 yards (101 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Berkeley County

Touchdown point

39.385, -77.926

Lift-off point

39.410, -77.922

Record number

2406051429-01

23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EFU. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Multiple large limbs broken and twisted along a tree line in a field
• Large limbs down on cedar trees. One teee has split at the base with a branch 1.5-2 feet in diameter.
• Large linbs snapped in a few different directions.
• Large tree branch 4-6 inches on diameter fell off a tree.

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

On the afternoon and evening of Wednesday, June 5th, 2024, a warm front slowly lifted northeast across the eastern Panhandle of West Virginia into northern Virginia as well as central and northeastern Maryland. At the same time, low pressure tracked along the warm front causing severe thunderstorms and tornadoes to develop. Over a dozen tornadoes were confirmed in just under six hours.

Staff from the National Weather Service Baltimore/Washington Weather Forecast Office conducted a ground survey of storm damage in Inwood WV that occurred on Wednesday afternoon, June 5, 2024. NWS Doppler Radar in Sterling, Virginia showed|a rotating severe thunderstorm that developed a tornado. The tornado touched down south/southeast of Inwood in a field where tall grass could be seen disturbed in a rotating pattern. The tornado proceeded to move north across a cow pasture where a line of trees contained tree damage with large branches broken off. The tornado then tracked north across the field, where additional tree damage and shingle damage occurred along Emery Lane. The tornado continued north towards Lucy Drive where gutter damage and additional tree damage occurred. The tornado then crossed Lucy Drive where large tree branches were broken off. It is believed that the tornado lifted before reaching Middleway Pike as no further damage was observed past that point.

National Weather Service Baltimore/Washington Weather Forecast Office staff conducted a survey of damage associated with a storm that occurred near the Chapel View neighborhood of Kearneysville, WV, on the afternoon of June 5th, 2024. The initial tree damage seen just to the east of Rustling Leaf Place was minor limbs broken off as the tornadic circulation started around 4:29 PM. Approximately 150 yards to the north of the initial damage is a large tree that was uprooted with several large limbs broken on the property of Mount Zion Baptist Church. The tornado then moved further to the north-northeast across several acres of open field farmlands approximately 200 to 300 yards east of Opequon Lane. Video evidence reveals the tornadic circulation approaching and ultimately crossing Route 9 before dissipating where no further damage was observed around 4:34 PM.

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.

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 Marginal 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.

Martinsburg Regional (MRB), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 60 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:29 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 2024 tornado in West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

23 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.