BUCKHANNON — Tornadoes have torn through West Virginia at a record pace this year, marking the most active season since 1998. A total of 18 tornadoes have been recorded in the state in 2024, with the majority occurring during the destructive storm on April 2, which heavily impacted Cabell, Kanawha, and Fayette counties.
Despite this surge, scientists urge caution before drawing conclusions from a single year. The increase is consistent with long-term shifts seen in tornado activity, partly attributed to climate change.
“We’re confident that the trend is real because it’s happening over a very broad area and it’s been happening over the last 40 years,” said Victor Gensini, an associate professor at Northern Illinois University.
Eastern states like West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia are increasingly witnessing tornadoes. However, experts like John Peck, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, stress that more years of data are required to confirm if this year’s activity is an anomaly or a new norm.
“The ability for us to detect tornadoes has gone up significantly over history with improvements in radar and remote sensing,” Peck said.
Jana Houser, an associate professor at The Ohio State University, highlighted that tornado detection only became standardized in the late 20th century. “We don’t have a really strong understanding of what’s happened, especially prior to 1990,” she said.
Experts have noticed that while the number of days favorable for tornadoes has decreased, the days that do see tornadoes tend to experience more of them. Houser noted, “We’re having one or two events that are really just supercharged and creating a whole lot of tornadoes.”
Researchers like Gensini and Houser are examining the role of climate change in this shift but acknowledge the complexities. “Is climate change 5% of that role? Is it 100% of that role? 20% of that role? We don’t know exactly,” Gensini said.
Houser added, “It’s hard to directly equate climate change and tornadoes because tornadoes are such picky events, but we can say the environmental conditions that would potentially favor tornadic storms are changing.”
For more detailed information, visit Weather.gov and West Virginia Watch.
