- Rating: EF-2
- Location: Kermit, WV
- County: Mingo
- Start Time: 7:45 p.m. (37.49, -82.23)
- End Time: (37.5, -82.22)
- Estimated Peak Wind: 125 mph
- Path Length: 1 mile
- Path Width Maximum: 250 yards
- Fatalities: 0
- Injuries: 0
Details from NWS storm survey: A confirmed tornado coming out of Martin County, Kentucky crossed over the Tug Fork River and lifted just as it entered West Virginia. The estimated path of the tornado as it moved out of Kentucky was 250 yards. As the funnel quickly moved east...it first touched down a quarter of a mile into its track on a ridgeline just south of the town of Kermit. Several trees were blown down on the southwestern facing slope of the ridge. Also noted along this ridge was scattered debris carried over the river from the town of Lovely in Martin County Kentucky. After contact with the ridge, the tornado lifted back up and traveled east, riding just above the ridgeline. Finally, as the funnel continued to lift it came in contact with a railroad communication tower. The elevation of the ridge the tower was positioned on was estimated at 1380 feet and the tower stood an additional 280 feet. This free-standing tower was fully collapsed over the back side of the ridge. Trees around the tower appeared to be largely unscathed. It was determined that a portion of the remaining tornado destroyed the tower before completely lifting up and dissipating. EF-2 damage was sustained to the tower with winds approximately 125 mph.
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, Spectrum Width 0.5 degree)
Panel loop - 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, Spectrum Width 0.5 degree):
Base Reflectivity Analyzed
This tornado lifted just as it crossed into West Virginia, which likely places the time of this tornado closer to 7:40 p.m., which is the timestamp of the image above. Though this tornado would weaken quickly once it entered the Mountain State from Virginia, it was going strong exiting the Bluegrass State and moved into the Kermit area (located across the river from Warfield in West Virginia).
Base Velocity Analyzed
The tornadic supercell had 93 knots of gate-to-gate shear as it entered West Virginia from Kentucky at an elevation of 3,400 feet. This is a drop from values that exceeded over 100 knots a few miles west in Kentucky as the storm approached and would subsequently drop quickly once into the Mountain State.
Normalized Rotation Analyzed
The image shows exceptionally high NROT values in Martin County, KY as the storm approached the West Virginia border, with NROT values nearing 3.0, peaking at 2.87. Just a few minutes later, the NROT peak product value dipped to 2.15 and by the time the storm moved due north of Lenore, peak values dropped to 1.8 - still significant but not nearly the impressive values farther west.
Significant rotation was observed all the way into Logan County, though no tornado was confirmed in that county.
Spectrum Width Analyzed
This was not the easiest image to extrapolate information from, as the Spectrum Width product was pretty noisy, but the storm's gust front and the chaotic flow near the tornado could be determined, as well as the inflow going into the storm.
