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F2 tornado in Caroline County, Virginia

Tornado April 1, 1998 · Caroline County, Virginia

F2
Rating
9.0 mi
Whole path
200 yd
Path width
2
Deaths
1
Injury
$1.0M
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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

Supercell thunderstorm produced a tornado along a 9 mile path extending from near Coatesville in northwest Hanover county eastward into south central Caroline county southeast of Ruther Glen. The damage path was nearly continuous along this track, with damage intensity ranging from F0/F1 to strong F2/F3 in a couple of locations along the path. Damage path ranged from about 200 yards wide to near one quarter of a mile wide at its widest. The most significant structural damage occurred to two homes east of Coatesville. One home was completely destroyed and another severely damaged. Numerous other homes in northwest Hanover and south central Caroline counties sustained lesser damage. In addition, two mobile homes were destroyed in Caroline county. Several churches sustained damage, and several outbuildings were severely damaged or destroyed. There were two areas along the tornado path where entire groves of pine trees were completely flattened by the tornado. There were two fatalities from the storm in the Coatesville area of northwest Hanover county and one minor injury in Caroline county.

Began near Ruther Glen (37.8800, -77.5000).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5649785. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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