At about 7:40 p.m. Tuesday the sound of sirens echoed across campus as wind speeds picked up.

Cameron Craig, a geographer and climatologist at Eastern, said wind gusts were up to 65 mph that night.

“We did have one confirmed tornado,” Craig said.

Craig said a tornado touch-down was cited in Christian County, causing damage to buildings, along with ping pong ball-sized hail reported in Fulton County.

Although there were no tornado sightings in Charleston, Craig said wind gusts were up to 65 mph.

After the tornado sirens had been turned on, Meghan Carroll, a senior physics major, left her house and took shelter in Buzzard Hall.

“Our house doesn’t have a basement so it’s safer here,” Carroll said as she sat in the hallway working on homework.

Katie Razunas and Megan Thacher sat quietly at a table in the Buzzard Atrium working on their laptops as the lighting and pouring rain continued outside.

Razunas, a senior family and consumer sciences major, and Thacher, a senior psychology major, were in the building before the sirens went off.

“We were sort of prepared for them to go off,” Razunas said.

Thacher said they had been watching the radar that night and went into the hallway when the sirens went off.

“I’ve went through tornado warnings before,” Thacher said without concern.

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, a tornado watch was put into effect. A tornado watch, Craig said, is when weather conditions are “favorable” for a tornado. Later that day, a tornado warning, meaning a tornado had been sighted, was then put into effect.

Craig said these severe weather conditions were a result of winds moving into low pressure as well as warm surface temperatures caused by the sunlight Tuesday afternoon.

Craig said these conditions created what is called a Larko’s Triangle

“This is an active season of severe weather,” Craig said.

Sam Bohne can be reached at 581-2812 or