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EF2 tornado in Richmond County, Virginia

Tornado February 24, 2016 · Richmond County, Virginia

EF2

Rating

30.3 mi

Whole path

300 yd

Path width

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 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 crossed the Rappahannock River from Essex county into Richmond county. The tornado struck Naylors Beach as an EF2 tornado removing significant portions of the upper floor of one two story home and destroying several other smaller homes. At this point, the tornado was 300 yards wide with winds around 120 mph. The tornado then crossed Newland Road, weakening slightly to low end EF1 with winds around 90 mph and continuing to Tallent Town Road and Piney Grove Road. The tornado then tracked into Westmoreland 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 Havelock (37.9625, -76.8699).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Sussex County 3 dead EF1 Mecklenburg County EF1 Middlesex County EF1 Middlesex County EF0 Fluvanna County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 621872. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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