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EF2 tornado in Pulaski County, Virginia

Tornado April 8, 2011 · Pulaski County, Virginia

EF2

Rating

1.9 mi

Path length

400 yd

Path width

Injuries

$3.9M

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 tornado touched down along Mount Olivet Road and traveled southeast, with the most significant damage along Pulaski Street, Valley Road, and Maple Street. Several roofs were torn off homes, top floors of a couple homes were completely destroyed, a couple homes were knocked off their foundations, and numerous large trees were snapped off. Over 200 homes received some damage, with around 30 of these destroyed beyond repair.

The wider storm

A high pressure centered over New England helped push a back door cold front to the vicinity of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Warm and unstable air in advance of this front, combined with an upper level low pressure system, resulted in the development of severe thunderstorms along the front. The strongest storms occurred right along the boundary, where two tornadoes hit Pulaski County. These two tornadoes were the first documented in Pulaski County since records began in 1950.

Began near Pulaski (37.0490, -80.8030).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Pulaski County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 300147. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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