West Virginia Weather: October 7th, 2014: Mercer/Raleigh Counties

Two tornadoes occurred within very close proximity of one another on October 7th, 2014. One of these tornadoes occurred in Raleigh County and the other in Mercer County:

Tornado #1: Odd, WV (Raleigh County)

Rating: EF-2
Location: Odd, WV
County: Raleigh
Start Location: 10:41 p.m. (37.6014, -81.2012)
End Location: 10:45 p.m. (37.6049, -81.1463)
Estimated Peak Wind: 125 mph
Path Length: 3.01 miles
Path Width Maximum: 150 yards
Fatalities: 0
Injuries: 0

Details from NWS storm survey: A strong wind flow existed in the lower atmosphere, well ahead of a surface cold front. Clusters of fast moving showers and thunderstorms raced across northeast Kentucky and into southern West Virginia during the late afternoon and evening hours. Late in the evening, a brief EF2 tornado occurred over the high terrain near Odd in southern Raleigh County. A brief EF2 tornado touched down near the community of Odd. This path is across terrain with an elevation of 2700 to 2800 feet and is just north of Flat Top Mountain. The maximum wind gust estimated by the survey was 125 mph. On Route 33 a well built garage or outbuilding, with a bolted foundation, was completely destroyed. An entire couch from that building was blown across the street and wrapped around a tree. About 10 to 20 houses, including mobile homes, had minor roof and porch damage. A few barns and outbuildings were damaged. At least 2 vehicles were destroyed. A new pickup truck was smashed by a fallen tree. Another car was hit by fallen trees. One parked school bus had its front windshield broken. Hundreds of large healthy trees were blown down. Exposed trees were blown down or uprooted. Trees more protected by the terrain had their tops sheared off. Power outages to several hundred people occurred. Roads were closed by the fallen trees. The local telephone company had around 20 poles damaged.

Tornado #2: Mercer County

Rating: EF-1
Location: Between Matoaka and Spanishburg
County: Mercer
Start Time: 11:39 p.m.
End Time: 11:49 p.m.
Estimated Peak Wind: 105 mph
Path Length: 5.5 miles
Path Width Maximum: 180 yards
Fatalities: 0
Injuries: 2

Details from NWS storm survey: Showers and thunderstorms developed in the vicinity of a warm front that was draped from southern Ohio across the southern Appalachian region. A couple of the storms across southeast West Virginia had enough low-level rotation in them to produce in one instance a tornado in Mercer County, and one with damaging winds in Summers County. A high-end EF-1 tornado with maximum winds estimated at 105 mph first touched down at 11:39 pm EDT about two miles northeast of Matoaka in a forested area, downing numerous trees. It then crossed Beeson Road, where three homes sustained minor damage along with a barn and several more trees. More trees were then snapped off as it initially crossed Little Rich Creek Road and then proceeded to cause severe damage to a mobile home at another location along Rich Creek Road. At this location, a mother and her son sustained non-life-threatening injuries. More trees were then uprooted along Rich Creek, and then finally as it crossed Sharver Road there was minor damage to a house and a small shed before the tornado lifted, before reaching Beckley Road. The total path length of the discontinuous damage was 5.5 miles.

This is only the second known tornado to touch down in Mercer County, West Virginia since 1950. The previous tornado was an F2 on April 12th, 1965. The National Weather Service in Blacksburg would like to extend our sincere appreciation to Mercer County Emergency Management for their assistance with the storm survey.

Photos of Damage

All photos from this storm event are provided by the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, VA during their storm survey. Tap/click here for a few more photos they took during the survey.

Radar Imagery

Panel of storm at time of tornado - click/tap on image for full resolution (Clockwise from top left: Base Reflectivity 0.5 degree, Base Velocity 0.5 degree, NROT 0.5 degree, Correlation Coefficient 0.5 degree)