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F2 tornado in Madison County, Virginia

Tornado September 17, 2004 · Madison County, Virginia

Rating

8.0 mi

Path length

400 yd

Path width

$200K

Damage as recorded

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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 F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A thunderstorm that moved into Madison County from Greene County produced tornado damage near Hood. A number of homes were damaged. One aluminum garage was destroyed and a rock chimney was topped off. The tornado remained on the ground for several miles and tracked northward into the higher terrain of western Madison County. Several large areas of mature mixed forest were almost completely leveled in the Rapidan Wildlife Management Area and the Shenandoah National Park.

Began near Hood (38.3500, -78.4000).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5425474. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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