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EF0 tornado in Culpeper County, Virginia

Tornado May 26, 2024 · Culpeper County, Virginia

EF0
Rating
4.8 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
5
Injuries
$250K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The National Weather Service conducted a ground survey of storm damage in the Rixeyville area that occurred on Sunday night, May 26, 2024. NWS Doppler Weather Radar in Sterling, Virginia showed a rotating severe thunderstorm that developed a tornado. Radar also showed a tornado damage signature due to lofted debris from the tornado as it was occurring. The tornado touched down along VA-714 Dunkard Church

Road, a third of a mile west of VA-729 Eggbornsville Road in rural, northwest Culpeper County. Several trees were snapped and uprooted in multiple directions. The tornado proceeded east-northeast and crossed VA-729 Eggbornsville Road. In this area, two dozen trees were noted to be snapped and uprooted in multiple directions. The

tornado passed over several homes and a church, but no structural damage was noted to these. The winds picked up and overturned a large shed with five occupants; these people were injured when the shed overturned due to the strong winds. Another smaller shed was also overturned. A resident reported seeing the funnel touch down

to the west of the road. A drone video showed a path of damage that was

approximately 100 yards wide.

The tornado continued east-northeast, snapping and uprooting at least a dozen large trees along VA-629 Settle School Road as it traversed a stretch of that road between Tolivers Forest Lane and Spring Hollow Lane. Several trees were snapped down as it crossed VA-632 Dutch Hollow Road. Tree damage continued to be in multiple

directions, including opposite the storm motion. The tornado proceeded another two miles, but did not cross another road until the final property where damage was noted. In the 9000 block of VA-640 Monumental Mills Road, a two foot diameter branch of a large beech tree was snapped off, along with smaller tree damage from a

southeast wind. That was the last damage noted, and there was no damage seen just east along VA-229 Rixeyville Road.

The wider storm

A large thunderstorm complex resulted in numerous instances of damaging winds over much of the Mid-Atlantic during the evening hours. A tornado was confirmed to have touched down in portions of north-central Virginia.

Began near Cordova (38.5593, -78.0636).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1171615. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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