EF1 tornado, Lansing to Divide, West Virginia, April 29, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

April 29, 2026

Touchdown

4:03 PM EDT (20:03 UTC)

Lifted

4:10 PM EDT (20:10 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

5.0 miles (8.0 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Fayette County

Touchdown point

38.081, -81.053

Lift-off point

38.063, -80.965

Highest wind the damage implies

110 mph

Surveyed by

NWS RLX

Survey last edited

April 30, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

An EF1 tornado began between US 19 and Whispering Pines Lane in the Pine Grove community of Fayette County. The tornado skipped along in an east-southeasterly direction with the damage path ending near the intersection of Mountain Vista Dr and US 60 in the Lookout community.

Tree damage was extensive along Edmond Rd and between Lansing Edmond Rd and US 60 with the trunks of some healthy mature hardwood trees snapped in both locations and many trees uprooted. Only some minor roof damage occurred to a couple structures.

Thanks to Fayette Co Office of Emergency Management, Fayette Co 911 and the Fayette County Sheriff's Office for assistance with the damage survey.

Written by NWS RLX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

12 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.

• Southern point of track through this area
• Last evidence of damage, two large trees uprooted.
• Leaf debris on south and southwest side of house.

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

On the afternoon of April 29th, a cluster of thunderstorms worked their way through West Virginia amid a passing cold front. Storms mainly exuded moments of damaging wind gusts, with the exception of one that passed over Fayette County. This storm produced an EF1 tornado that traveled 5 miles from Pine Grove over to the community of Lookout. While the tornado was on the ground, extensive tree damage was observed, along with minor roof damage to a few structures in its path. Convection quickly progressed eastward into the Greenbrier Valley that evening as the front made southeastward progress through the region.

An EF1 tornado began between US 19 and Whispering Pines Lanes in the Pine Grove community of Fayette County. The tornado skipped along in an east-southeasterly direction with the damage path ending near the intersection of Mountain Vista Drive and US 60 in the Lookout community. Tree damage was extensive along Edmond Road and between Lansing Edmond Road and US 60 with the trunks of some healthy mature hardwood trees snapped in both locations and many trees uprooted. Only some minor roof damage occurred to a couple structures in the tornado's path.||This is the fifth documented tornado to occur in Fayette County since 1961, and the first since 2024. This tornado crossed US 60 a mere 1.9 miles south of where an EF2 tornado crossed on April 2nd, 2024.

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 20:00 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), 68 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:02 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 2026 tornado in West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

1 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.