EF2 Tornado — Campbell, Virginia

2018-04-15 · near Timberlake, Campbell, Virginia

Event narrative

This is the first segment of a tornado that touched down just south of Waterlink Road near Timberlake in Campbell County at 6:00 PM EST. The tornado uprooted trees, damaged multiple roofs from homes, damaged several businesses, and flipped several cars. A total of 28 buildings suffered damage, and five of those buildings were completely destroyed. The tornado crossed Timberlake Road and exited Campbell County at 6:03 PM EST. It would continue into the western portion of the independent city of Lynchburg and further northward into Amherst County.

Wider weather episode

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.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.3264, -79.2410)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 748628. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.