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EF3 tornado in Essex County, Virginia

Tornado February 24, 2016 · Essex County, Virginia

EF3
Rating
30.3 mi
Whole path
500 yd
Path width
25
Injuries
$9.2M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through King and Queen County → Essex County → Richmond County → Westmoreland 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 King and Queen county into Essex county as an intensifying, high end EF1 severely damaging several homes along Dunbrook Road. The tornado continued to intensify crossing Perkins Road as an EF2 before hitting Kino Road as an EF3 tornado. Along Kino Road, all the homes in the path including three modular homes, two double wide mobile homes and one single wide mobile home were completely destroyed with most of the debris carried away. Tree damage was severe and winds were estimated at 140 to 150 mph based on damage. Everyone impacted by the tornado along Kino Road suffered injuries, some life threatening. After leaving the Kino Road area, the tornado crossed Scotts Mill Road just west of Tappahannock as a high end EF2 tornado causing severe tree damage, severely damaging numerous homes and causing the collapse of several garages and outbuildings. The tornado passed just west of downtown Tappahannock, crossing Highway 17 as an EF1 tornado and severely damaging homes on Tuckaway Lane and Highway 17. The tornado then crossed the Rappahannock River and into Richmond county.

The wider storm

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

Began near Howertons (37.8285, -76.9681).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 621868. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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