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F2 tornado in Henry County, Virginia

Tornado August 17, 1994 · Henry County, Virginia

Rating

4.2 mi

Path length

300 yd

Path width

Injuries

$50.0M

Damage as recorded

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado touched down just north of Ridgeway and moved to one and a half miles south of Martinsville. The path length was 4.25 miles long and averaged about 200 yards wide. Ten people were injured, 100 homes and 30 businesses were damaged. Total damages came to $8.7 million. The thunderstorm that produced the tornado was part of the remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 10356541. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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