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EF1 tornado in Montgomery County, Virginia

Tornado October 23, 2017 · Montgomery County, Virginia

EF1

Rating

3.1 mi

Whole path

300 yd

Path width

$600K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Pulaski County → Montgomery 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 EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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

A tornado touched down as an EF1 at 5:33PM (LST) just west of Belspring Road in Pulaski County and traveled 1.3 miles before crossing the New River along Depot Road into Montgomery County at approximately 5:35PM. The tornado would continue almost two more miles before lifting near McCoy at 5:39PM. Most of the damage was to trees being snapped or knocked down on Kentland Farm, with likely totals in the hundreds. Some homes in the McCoy area received some minor damage, however the majority of the path through Montgomery county managed to stay in uninhabited areas. The tornado reached its maximum width of 300 yards near the river and consistently displayed EF1 (86-110 MPH) damage through its lifespan.

The wider storm

An upper level storm system moving toward the region from the south would interact with a closed upper level low moving through the Tennessee Valley. At the surface, a fast moving cold front moved into the region where a highly sheared environment was in place. These conditions triggered multiple severe thunderstorms and a two tornadoes in southwest Virginia.

Began near Whitethorne (37.1920, -80.5970).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Grayson County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 724804. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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