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EF2 tornado in Shenandoah County, Virginia

Tornado April 28, 2011 · Shenandoah County, Virginia

EF2

Rating

33.5 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

$450K

Damage as recorded

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

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 tore roofs from barns and homes. Numerous trees were uprooted and snapped along its path. The tornado also pcked up a half ton piece of industrial equipment and tossed it 200 yards.

The wider storm

A strong cold front slowly passed through the region during the morning and early afternoon hours of the 28th. A southerly flow ahead of the front caused deep moisture over the area. The deep moisture combined with a mid-level trough to produce moderate amounts of instability. The cold front combined with the instability to trigger showers and thunderstorms. Some thunderstorms were able to mix down strong winds from aloft.

Low level wind speed and direction changed rapidly with height causing tornadoes to develop in some of the stronger thunderstorms.

Began near Hepners (38.7362, -78.8311).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Augusta County EF1 Rockingham County EF1 Rockingham County EF0 Frederick County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 302229. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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