Submitted photos High winds that blew through Randolph County on Sunday destroyed the visitors dugout at the Elkins High School baseball field. Wind gusts reached 74 miles per hour Sunday at the Elkins Airport, nearby EHS.

Submitted photos
High winds that blew through Randolph County on Sunday destroyed the visitors dugout at the Elkins High School baseball field. Wind gusts reached 74 miles per hour Sunday at the Elkins Airport, nearby EHS.

The Inter-Mountain photo by Anthony Gaynor
A large tree was toppled by the wind Sunday along Center Street in Elkins. The falling tree barely missed two residences, but brought down several utility lines, leading to a power outage in the area.

ELKINS — High winds in Randolph County — which were recorded at 74 mph at one point Sunday afternoon — uprooted trees and destroyed a brick dugout structure at Elkins High School before ushering in yet another winter snow storm Sunday night.

According to the National Weather Service in Charleston, Elkins had the highest wind gust in the state on Sunday at 74 miles per hour. The gust was recorded at 12:48 p.m. in the afternoon at the Elkins Airport.

High winds Sunday afternoon brought down several trees throughout the city, leaving some residents without power.

Sizable trees were reported down on Center Street and in the area of 10th Street, with residents in those areas still without power Monday afternoon. According to the Randolph County Office of Emergency Management’s Facebook page, First Energy/Mon Power was working on restoring power to 516 customers in Randolph County as of 12:30 p.m.

“The highest gust of winds in the state on Sunday was in Elkins and it was at 74 (mph),” NWS meteorologist Gabe Wawrin told The Inter-Mountain Monday. “We also had some gusts reported at Snowshoe that were in the 60s. The winds were due to a front moving through, and as the showers and snow moved through along the front, it kind of helped to transfer some of the higher winds down to the surface.”

Travel conditions for commuters weren’t ideal Monday morning, either. Elkins and Beverly saw close to three inches of snowfall overnight that continued throughout the morning. Ten inches of snow was reported in Snowshoe.

“Snowshoe, Elkins and Beverly look to have had the most snow in the immediate Elkins area,” Wawrin said. “After a dry Monday night, that will carry into Tuesday, where we are looking at more dry conditions throughout the day.”

Schools were canceled in Randolph County and Upshur County due to the weather conditions, while Pendleton County operated on a two-hour delay. Barbour, Tucker and Pocahontas County schools were already scheduled to be off on Monday for Presidents Day.

Wawrin said more snow is headed to the area and will begin during the overnight hours tonight.

“Late Tuesday night and mainly into Wednesday and Thursday, we are looking at more snow in the Elkins area,” he said. “There is potential for light-to-moderate accumulations with the snow that is coming.”

The forecast for today is mostly sunny, with a high temperature around 24 degrees. Tonight’s low is expected to be 10 degrees, with increasing clouds after 3 a.m.

Snow is expected to begin sometime after 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning, with accumulations of 1 to 3 inches expected throughout the day. There is a 70% chance of snow overnight on Wednesday and continuing into Thursday morning.