Twin twisters leave path of destruction in Mercer, Raleigh counties

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service confirmed two separate tornadoes touched down in Raleigh and Mercer counties Tuesday night leaving behind destructive paths.

Meteorologist Robert Stonefield in the NWS’s Blacksburg office told MetroNews the tornado in southern Mercer County was an EF-1 tornado and contained 105 mph winds. It had a 5.5-mile length and its width was 180 yards.

“It skipped from ridge top to a valley and then it lifted up and came down again. There were three or four different spots that it hit,” Stonefield said.

The National Weather Service in Charleston confirmed an EF-2 tornado near the community of Odd in Raleigh County. It contained winds of up to 125 mph. It was 150 yards wide and stretched between five and six miles.

The NWS team found straight line wind damage around the tornado’s path.

The NWS team said the Mercer County twister hit in the area between Spanishburg and Matoaka. It destroyed a mobile home. A woman and her 4-year-old child were thrown 40-feet by the wind. They suffered minor injuries.

Stonefield said there’s hasn’t been a tornado recorded in Mercer County since the mid-1960s.


“The only other tornado we have on record is April 1965. So it’s almost been 50 years since the last tornado was recorded there,” he said.