Weather Event Summaries

The following summaries cover "significant" or widespread hazardous weather events the have occurred in the NWS Charleston, WV Forecast and Warning Area.

For a searchable database of all documented tornadoes that have touched down in the NWS Charleston, WV forecast and warning area since 1886 please visit our Tornado Database.
Additional documentation on storm events can be found in the NOAA Storm Events Database.

Scroll down the page for year, or go directly:

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

December 8-9: Winter storm brings heavy snowfall to the Coalfields of southern WV and VA

2016

2015

2014

June 4: EF-1 Tornado in Ona, WV

2013

2012

2010

September 16: Tornado Outbreak

2006

2005

2004

Historic

The West Virginia Derecho of April 9, 1991

Many West Virginians and Ohioans easily recall the Derecho of 2012, however, the Derecho of 1991 was comparable in wind speeds and resulting damage. The southwest to northeast moving squall line caused 2 deaths, 86 injuries and over 8,000 insurance claims due to damage to homes and businesses in West Virginia alone.

The Little Kanawha Flash Floods of 1943

On August 4-5, 1943, one of the deadliest floods in West Virginia history occurred in the Little Kanawha River Basin. Many small streams in Braxton, Calhoun, Gilmer, Ritchie, and Wirt Counties reached stages much higher than previously known as a result of estimated rainfall that amounted to as much as 15 inches in 2 hours. Twenty-three lives were lost as a result of the flood. Although there was considerable flooding of residential property in the communities along the Little Kanawha River, all loss of life occurred along relatively small tributaries. There, in the small valleys, the water rose with great rapidity during the early morning hours of August 5th, carrying away many homes.