Thunderstorm Wind — Fairfax (c), Virginia

2003-05-07 · near Fairfax, Fairfax (c), Virginia

Event narrative

Trees and wires were downed.

Wider weather episode

Two severe thunderstorms moved through Northern Virginia during the afternoon of the 7th. One produced a tornado that moved through Fauquier County, and the other produced high winds that downed trees and power lines across the western suburbs of Washington D.C. In Fauquier County, an F0 tornado touched down 3 miles west of Warrenton. It lifted up and down along a 5 mile path before finally dissipating 2 miles southeast of town. The first location where damage was found was in the vicinity of Waterloo Estates. A large tree several feet in diameter was downed on Stonelea Lane. A three-quarter-mile long path of downed trees up to 50 yards wide was surveyed between Stonelea Lane and Fauquier High School. The tornado lifted as it pushed over the high school, but not before damaging a flag pole and athletic field equipment on school grounds. Several people at the high school saw the funnel and took shelter inside the building. The next touchdown was on Culpeper Street, just south of the center of town. Several tree branches were downed there. The tornado lifted off the ground again, but touched down briefly southeast of town near the intersection of Route 643 (Meetze Road) and Poplar Grove Drive. One final touchdown was observed near the intersection of Route 674 (Lunsford Road) and Route 670 (Auburn Road). Both touchdown locations southeast of town had minor tree damage. It is possible that the tornado touched down one more time in the community of Cassanova, about 5 miles southeast of Warrenton. Minor damage was reported at the intersection of Route 602 and 616, but the damage was cleaned up before it could be surveyed. A funnel cloud was spotted two more times with this storm, once near Brent Town in southeast Fauquier County and finally at Quantico in Prince William County. High winds were also produced by the thunderstorm just north and south of the tornado's path. Trees were downed in two locations along Route 802 (Springs Road) about 2 miles southwest of Warrenton. A microburst of wind up to 70 MPH downed several large trees in a small area of eastern Warrenton between Alexandria Pike and Walker Drive. Leaves and twigs were plastered to buildings and siding was damaged in this area as well. This thunderstorm also produced very heavy downpours and pea sized hail over Warrenton. Street and basement flooding was reported as the storm moved through. Small hail and heavy downpours were also reported in Opal.Another thunderstorm produced high winds across the Virginia suburbs of D.C. In Falls Church, a power line was downed onto a moving pickup truck on Westmoreland Drive. Two people were trapped inside the vehicle until firefighters could cut off electricity to the wires. In Fairfax County, power lines were downed onto Woodland Drive in Tyson's Corner. Trees were downed in Vienna. Cloud to ground lightning started a house fire northeast of Mount Vernon and blew transformers in Merrifield and Herndon. In the city of Fairfax, a townhouse and a house both caught fire after being struck by lightning. Scattered trees were downed as well, including one which fell on a car at the intersection of Arlington Boulevard and Dale Road. A wind gust of 46 MPH was recorded in Reston. In Alexandria, power lines were downed in the western end of the city.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (38.9000, -77.2167)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5370259. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.