EF1 tornado in Pittsylvania County, Virginia

Tornado April 15, 2018 · Pittsylvania County, Virginia

EF1

Rating

16.4 mi

Whole path

175 yd

Path width

$3.8M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Caswell County, North Carolina → Pittsylvania County → Danville (c) County → Pittsylvania County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 175 yards (0.10 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

This is the first segment in Virginia of a tornado that originated west of Pelham near Dusty Lane in Caswell County of North Carolina at 4:51 PM EST. It crossed into Pittsylvania County at 4:53 PM EST. The tornado snapped numerous trees and damaged a few outbuildings. The tornado crossed into the independent city of Danville at 4:55 PM EST. It would later continue northward back into Pittsylvania County.

The wider storm

A strong cold front with a negatively-tilted upper level trough approached southwest Virginia. Plenty of wind shear with modest instability made conditions ripe for large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. The thunderstorms ahead of the cold front became strong enough to produce six tornadoes across portions of southwest Virginia. While the first tornado originally formed in Caswell County of North Carolina and crossed into Virginia, the other five all touched down in Virginia. These tornadoes caused significant damage within the cities of Danville and Lynchburg and within the town of Elon in Amherst County. It is the first time ever since storm data records began in 1950 that a tornado struck inside the city limits of Lynchburg.

Began near Vandola (36.5408, -79.4931).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Campbell County EF1 Craig County EF1 Bedford County EF1 Campbell County EF0 Amherst County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 748591. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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