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EF3 tornado in Gloucester County, Virginia

Tornado April 16, 2011 · Gloucester County, Virginia

EF3

Rating

26.5 mi

Whole path

800 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$8.0M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Surry County → James City → York County → Gloucester County → Mathews County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 800 yards (0.45 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

Tornado tracked from York county into Gloucester county. The worst damage (EF2 and EF3 intensity) was in the southern part of Gloucester county near Clopton. A total of 15 homes were destroyed by the tornado, with an additional 29 homes sustaining major damage. Nearly 100 other structures sustained minor damage, or were affected by the tornado or the associated debris. Page Middle School was also severely damaged, with large parts of the school rendered unusable. School buses were overturned and tossed around by the tornado. Numerous trees and power lines were downed, with a number of other trees sheared off.

The wider storm

Scattered severe thunderstorms in advance of a cold front produced damaging winds, large hail, and numerous tornadoes across portions of central and eastern Virginia.

Began near Coke (37.2946, -76.5715).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Middlesex County EF2 Isle of Wight County EF1 Lunenburg County EF1 Dinwiddie County EF1 Southampton County EF1 Middlesex County EF0 Southampton County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 305469. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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