An early evening tornado warning in Ohio and West Virginia covered parts of Vinton, Gallia and Meigs counties in Ohio and Mason County, West Virginia, then expired after little evidence of a touchdown. The warning ran from 6 until 7 p.m. as a fast-growing storm moved along the Mason-Meigs line.
Mason-Meigs line storm
The storm grew from a 10,000-foot-high shower to a 45,000-foot-tall severe thunderstorm in about a half hour. It carried an impressive hail and strong wind signature, but it lacked a true signature of rotation.
That mix matters for people watching the sky and the warning alerts: the storm looked organized enough to trigger concern, yet it only feigned weak rotation and apparently never did muster a touchdown. After 7 p.m., there was little evidence that one had formed.
Jackson-Mason line after 7:30
By 7:30, the storm had faded back to a weak shower on the Jackson-Mason line. For residents in the warned area, that ended the immediate threat from that system, but it did not end the week’s storm risk.
The warning was likely the first in a series of storms expected to keep the region on high water and thunder alert all week. Storm warnings, including tornado warnings and flash flooding warnings, are likely on Tuesday as low pressure approaches from the west.
Great Kanawha and Ohio
Before the week is out, enough rain is expected to fall to bring some small rivers into flood and cause major rises on the Great Kanawha and Ohio rivers. Whether any tornado actually formed anywhere along the storm track is not answered, but the next round of warnings could arrive on Tuesday with the same weather setup still in place.
