Home / Virginia / Mathews

EF3 tornado in Mathews County, Virginia

Tornado April 16, 2011 · Mathews County, Virginia

EF3

Rating

26.5 mi

Whole path

500 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 500 yards (0.28 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 Gloucester county into western Mathews county where it lifted. Few trees were downed or 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 North (37.4517, -76.4412).

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 305487. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.