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GANDY -- The National Weather Service has confirmed that a tornado touched down in Randolph County near Gandy on July 21, the night severe storms caused flooding throughout the region.
The NWS said the tornado hit at approximately 6:55 p.m. and was on the ground for close to a minute.
“There was an EF1 tornado confirmed in Randolph County with estimated peak winds of 95 miles per hour,” National Weather Service Meteorologist Harrison Sincavage told The Inter-Mountain Wednesday. “The trek length was 0.9 miles, so almost 1 mile, and the width was 250 yards or about two-and-half football fields.”
EF is the abbreviation for the Enhanced Fujita Scale, which became operational in 2007. It is used to assign a tornado a rating based on estimated wind speeds and related damage. An EF1 tornado, like the one that occurred in Randolph County last week, is a tornado with wind speeds 86 to 110 miles per hour.
Sincavage said that the tornado began just west of the Whitmer Road, midway up Rich Mountain. It then traveled east/south east down the steep terrain of the mountain. The tornado continued through the valley at the the bottom of Rich Mountain, with the last observed damage being east of Dry Fork Road.
“The tornado uprooted and snapped numerous trees along its path down the side of the mountain,” Sincavage. “Most of the damage was done in a hollow down the side of the mountain. We also saw that some of the hardwood trees that were uprooted were in excess of 18 to 24 inches in diameter. So there were some fairly large trees taken out.”
This was the first confirmed tornado in Randolph County since July 9, 1980, and just the sixth tornado in the history of the county, NWS officials said.
“Two tornadoes occurred that day (in 1980),” Sincavage said. “One was an F2, which was estimated by the original Fujita Scale back then, and the other one was an F1 tornado… The Fujita Scale did not exist for the tornado in 1967, but it was on May 21 and three were injured with that one, according to our official storm events database.”
The original Fujita Scale was developed based on damage intensity and not wind speed. Wind speed ranges given were estimated, based on the extent of observed damage. A F1 tornado was estimated at 73 to 112 miles per hour with moderate damages consisting of roof surfaces peeled off, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, and moving autos pushed off road.
A F2, meanwhile, was estimated at 113 to 157 miles per hour with the damage assessment being considerable damage with roofs torn from frame houses, mobile homes demolished, boxcars pushed over, large trees snapped or uprooted, and light objects becoming projectiles.
The tornado in Randolph County was the ninth confirmed to have touched down in West Virginia on July 21. An EF0 tornado in Barbour County on July 21 was confirmed over the weekend.