Taylor County

Every recorded tornado

1. Injuries and deaths are for the tornado’s whole path, which may extend beyond the county. Deaths recorded within Taylor County: 0.
2. Weak tornadoes were under-recorded before Doppler radar coverage became national in the early 1990s, so earlier decades read low. Ratings use the Fujita scale before February 2007 and the Enhanced Fujita scale after.

Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, 1950 to 2025.

Every storm within 100 miles

1. Tropical storms and hurricanes (34 kt or more, still tropical) at closest approach. Post-tropical remnants with gale-force winds are listed but not counted. Direct: track within 50 miles; near: within 100 miles. Distance is measured to the county boundary for counties and to the city centre for cities, using positions interpolated hourly between HURDAT2 fixes.

National Hurricane Center HURDAT2, 1851 to 2025.

Smoke overhead

1. A smoke day is a date on which a smoke plume traced by NOAA Hazard Mapping System analysts from satellite imagery covered this place's point (the county's population centre or the city centre). Counts here are of medium or heavy smoke. Since 2018 analysts have often drawn light smoke as one area over most of the continent, so light-smoke counts are not comparable from year to year. The plumes show smoke anywhere in the air above, not air quality at the ground, and smoke hidden by cloud is missed.

NOAA Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, 2011 to 2026, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Claims by ZIP code

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026. NOAA Storm Events through 2026.

1. The Palmer Drought Severity Index is computed by NOAA each month from the county's average temperature and precipitation, relative to the county's own climate. Zero is normal; -3 or lower is severe drought and -4 or lower extreme drought. It describes the long-term balance of moisture, not water supply or crop losses.

NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, 1895 to September 2026, issued October 6, 2026.

1. Earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 or more in the USGS Comprehensive Catalog since 1900. Within 50 miles means the epicentre lies within 50 miles of the county boundary (or inside the county).
2. Small earthquakes were under-recorded before the modern seismic networks of the 1970s and are still missed in remote areas, so early decades read low. Magnitudes are as the catalogue reports them and mix scales (moment, local and body-wave).

USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog, 1900 to present, retrieved October 30, 2026.

Mapped landslides

Mapped by WV GS (3,212), NASA (1).

1. Landslides mapped in the USGS compilation of landslide inventories across the United States (version 3.0, 2025), rated probable or better. The compilation joins inventories made by federal and state agencies for different purposes and areas, so the number mapped in a county reflects how closely it has been surveyed as much as how often its slopes fail. An area with few records may simply not have been mapped. Deaths are as recorded in the inventories; a slide listed in two inventories is counted once.

USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0, retrieved October 27, 2026.

Costliest events since 1996

1. Apr 28, 2016Hail$3.8 million
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail as large as baseballs fell. The county emergency manager and insurance companies, tallied over 800 damaged vehicles in the county with dents, windows cracked, or rear windows smashed out. The emergency manager told the National Weather Service it looked like someone had taken a sledge hammer to the vehicles. This included dozens of vehicles at a Ford dealership and 8 sheriff vehicles. The county sheriff said, I���ve never seen a hail storm this bad. I���ve seen hail damage before, but I���ve never seen anything like this in all my life.' Almost every vehicle parked along Maple Avenue was damaged. ||The principal of Grafton High School said, our auditorium…

2. Jun 4, 2008Flash Flood$750,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Several small streams, including the headwaters of Simpson Creek, flooded roads and some homes during the late night and early morning hours.

3. Jun 29, 2012Thunderstorm Wind$500,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Numerous trees and large branches were blown down. Electricity was lost to about 5,800 customers. The public infrastructure damage assessment was around $29,000.

4. Jul 10, 2001Flash Flood$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Thunderstorms formed ahead of a cold front. The storms dumped 2 to 4 inches of rain, over a small area, in less than 6 hours. The cooperative observer near Grafton measured 3.1 inches of rain. Flooding occurred inside the city limits of Grafton, plus along Plum Run, Wickwire Run, and Dry Run. County officials surveyed around 80 homes and 2 businesses that were affected. Taylor County was added to the previous FEMA disaster declaration 1378.

5. Feb 29, 2012Flash Flood$400,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Small stream flooding was common across the northern half of Taylor County. Three Fork Creek basin around Thorton was hard hit. Also, Corbin Branch, along the Harrison County border, saw considerable damage. In the county, 1 mobile home was destroyed. Two houses had water reach 3 inches deep on their first floor. Basement flooding was seen in 11 homes. Valley Falls State Park, along the Taylor and Marion County line had considerable damage to roads and trails.

6. Jul 29, 2017Flood$299,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Following a prolonged period of heavy rainfall, high water closed numerous roads across Taylor County. The Department of Highways reported over 20 county roads were closed at one point. Northwest of Grafton, Tucker Run Road had a culvert wash out. Old WV 73 was also closed due to high water in southern Taylor County.

7. Apr 28, 2016Hail$250,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Hail as large as tennis balls fell. Vehicles were dented with their windows cracked or smashed out.

8. Nov 19, 2003Flood, Taylor$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Rains of 2 to 4.2 inches fell from 2200E on the 18th through 1600E on the 19th. A strong inflow of moist air from the southeast, helped enhance these rains. The heaviest rain was over the central and southern mountains, say from the Snowshoe region on through Richwood, Beckley, Mullens, and Elkhorn. Some of the preliminary rain totals were 4.2 inches at Snowshoe, 3.9 inches at Richwood, 3.7 inches at Elkhorn, 3.5 inches at Rosedale, 3.3 inches at Frost and Mullens, 3.1 inches at Webster Springs and Glenville, 2.9 inches at Oak Hill and Beckley. Vegetation was dormant for the upcoming winter, the ground saturated, and the waterways were still flowing above normal levels from the…

9. Jun 16, 1998Hail$200,000
   National Weather Service narrative

   Unusually large hail for the Mountain State occurred in central counties. Insurance companies estimated on the order of 4000 claims across West Virginia with this event. The majority of the damage was from hail damaging vehicles.

10. Jun 4, 2008Flood$100,000
    National Weather Service narrative

    The additional rains during the day on the 4th were lighter than the previous late night, but the overall effect caused additional small stream flooding.

1. Storm Events records before 1996 cover only tornadoes, thunderstorm wind and hail. Damage figures are as reported by the National Weather Service at the time, not adjusted for inflation.

NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, 1950 to 2026, issued October 26, 2026.

All-time high

98°F4 times, most recently Aug 28, 2024

All-time low

−20°FJan 14, 1948

Warmest night

76°F3 times, most recently Jul 19, 2020

Coldest day

6°FJan 19, 1940

Wettest day

3.07 inAug 12, 2001

Hottest year

2019mean 57.0°F

Coldest year

1940mean 50.7°F

Wettest year

201157.60 in

Driest year

201033.44 in

Station Clarksburg Benedum Airport (USW00003802), 1,205 ft elevation, 8.8 miles from the population centre. Daily records from 1939 to October 26, 2026; 93.0% of days in the last 30 years are complete. Records at a single station can differ from a city’s official threaded record, which may combine several stations.

NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily.

This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA. The Federal Government or FEMA cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from the Agency's website(s).

OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries, retrieved October 30, 2026. Statewide declarations are not listed.

Neighbouring counties

• Tornadoes NOAA Storm Prediction Center severe weather database, through 2025.
• Tropical cyclones NOAA National Hurricane Center HURDAT2 (Atlantic; Northeast and Central Pacific), through 2025.
• Wildfire USGS/USFS Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity, through 2026.
• Storm events NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, through 2026.
• Flood insurance OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims v3, refreshed August 4, 2026.
• Declarations OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Weather records NOAA NCEI Global Historical Climatology Network Daily, station USW00003802.
• River crests NOAA National Weather Service, National Water Prediction Service river gauges, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Drought NOAA NCEI nClimDiv county Palmer Drought Severity Index, through September 2026.
• Smoke NOAA NESDIS Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis, retrieved October 30, 2026.
• Landslides USGS Landslide Inventories across the United States, version 3.0 (2025).
• Earthquakes USGS ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat), retrieved October 30, 2026.

Joins, thresholds and known limits are set out in the methodology. Found an error? Report it. Page built October 30, 2026.