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EF1 tornado in Northumberland County, Virginia

Tornado April 3, 2024 · Northumberland County, Virginia

EF1
Rating
5.8 mi
Whole path
100 yd
Path width
$276K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Richmond County → Northumberland County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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 EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

A tornado tracked from Richmond County across Ridge Road and into Northumberland County where it caused mainly EF-0 damage to Quinton Oaks Gulf course as several hardwood trees were knocked down along with a storage shed which was destroyed. Additional damage was caused to a double wide manufactured home off of Ridge Road which had large sections of its roof ripped off. The tornado then intensified as it crossed Azalea Lane and Owl Town Road where numerous hardwood trees were snapped along with two houses which had portions of their roofs lifted off. One of these houses had its garage wall blown out and the other had multiple walls collapse and cave in. The damage in this area was consistent with EF-1 damage of 95-100 mph. The tornado continued to track northeast, crossing US 360 near Glebe Lane as a high-end EF-0 with roof damage observed on houses along with additional uprooted trees. The tornado lifted just north of US 360 and east of Glebe Lane around 310 pm EST.

The wider storm

An upper level low occluded over the Great Lakes on April 3 with a stationary front across southern Virginia on the morning of the 3rd lifting north as a warm front into the afternoon. Meanwhile, a secondary surface low formed across southwestern Virginia in the morning and gradually drifted east through the afternoon along with a trailing cold front. This setup produced scattered severe storms including a tornado in the Northern Neck.

Began near Luttrellville (37.9429, -76.5812).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1172759. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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