Thunderstorm Wind in Page County, Virginia

A severe thunderstorm on the afternoon of Monday, June 22nd

produced a downburst of damaging wind that created a path of

damage nearly seven miles long through central Page County

Virginia, about 2 miles south of Luray.

Along that path that passed through the towns of Leaksville and

Stony Man, there were many trees snapped and uprooted. In addition,

outbuilding, shed, siding and shingle damage was evident.

Peak winds of 85 mph were estimated around Mill Creek Rd, Rodeo

Drive, and Mt. Zion Road between E Branch Rd and Redman Store Rd

where there was substantial structural damage. A home roof was

partially lifted on Rodeo Dr. There was also roof damage to two

homes on Mt. Zion Drive, where about half of the windward side of

each roof was lifted off. The same was true for chicken houses on

the property where substantial portions of the tin roofs were

lifted off and thrown downwind, or bent. Large hay bales were

rolled tens of yards. Damage was noted to be unidirectional with

storm movement, generally thrown to east.

Severe thunderstorms can produce wind gusts equal to EF0 and EF1

tornadoes.

The National Weather Service would like to thanks Page County

Department of Emergency Management and the local broadcast

meteorologists for their assistance with information and damage

reports.

Lines of thunderstorms developing well out ahead of a cold front in a hot and unstable environment resulted in scattered instances of damaging wind gusts. A few destructive wind gusts were noted in north-central Virginia.