LYNCHBURG - Friday, August 14, 2026 - New video via Pastor Shawn Hyska in Lynchburg of at least a rotating funnel cloud nearly overhead Friday, August 14, 2026. Video appears to be sped up a bit, but light debris can be seen being kicked up from the ground.
At 67 miles away from the nearest radar in Floyd County the lowest possible elevation the beam hits is 5,400 feet high in Lynchburg, well above the surface, where tornadoes actually form.
Even at 5,400 feet, I could see a mesocyclone extending into the mid and upper atmosphere and holding together as it tracked SE in an area of high wind shear near a back door cool front dropping south. I will post the radar loop in the comments or in another post.
Surrounding radars in Charleston, WV, Sterling, VA, Wakefield, VA and Raleigh, NC all picked up the rotation in the upper levels much higher up into the storm.
Another possibility is a land spout or gustnado which can form without a wall cloud above. It’s up to the NWS to determine if they want to confirm this as anything “official”.
A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was in effect for the area, but no mention of a “Tornado:… Possible” was mentioned. No Tornado Warning was issued, but that can be a VERY tough call at that elevation without ground truth so I respect the NWS work, regardless.
My personal research into local tornado history shows that the setup for our tornadoes here at home involve a warm/stationary/back door front like we had in place Friday.
There were a string of tornado warnings and serious straight line wind damage along with large hail in the Charlottesville area just to the north around the same time right along the southward-moving front.
Thanks, Pastor Hyska for the video!!
Original Facebook source: Open post
Video link: Watch on Facebook
Source note: Star News TV · Aug 16, 2026 2:52 AM.
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