Discreet 24/7 Biohazard Remediation in Tornado, WV

Tornado is a census-designated place in Kanawha County, West Virginia, also known historically as Upper Falls.

The community takes its historical name from the Upper Falls of the adjacent Coal River.

Tornado's name was the subject of a long official dispute: the Board on Geographic Names approved Tornado in 1980, changed it to Upper Falls in 2010, and restored Tornado in 2013 after the Kanawha County Commission reported that residents preferred it.

The population of the Tornado CDP was 1,081 at the 2020 census.

For the 2010 census the community was counted as the much larger Upper Falls CDP, with 3,701 residents over 17.18 square miles — then the largest CDP in West Virginia by area — before the smaller Tornado boundaries were restored for 2020.

The 2020 census counted 441 housing units in Tornado, and at the 2000 census the CDP had 1,111 residents and 419 households.

Explorer John Peter Salling discovered the Upper Falls in 1742 during an expedition that also found coal along the Coal River's banks.

In the 1850s a system of locks and dams made the Coal River navigable past the Upper Falls for cannel coal shipments, though steamboat traffic ended permanently in 1881.

The Coal River and Western Railway was completed through the community in 1904, and the line, now CSX's Coal River subdivision, still carries bituminous coal.

Tornado's first post office opened in 1851 as Upper Falls of Coal and was renamed Tornado in 1881; mail addressed to ZIP code 25202 may use either Tornado or Upper Falls.