EF2 Tornado — Lynchburg (c), Virginia

2018-04-15 · near (lyh)glenn Fld Lynch, Lynchburg (c), Virginia

Event narrative

This is the second segment of a tornado that touched down just south of Waterlink Road near Timberlake in Campbell County at 6:00 PM EST. The tornado crossed Timberlake Road and entered the independent city of Lynchburg at 6:03 PM EST. The tornado uprooted trees and caused notable damage to 332 private buildings, and 34 of those buildings were condemned due to the damage. It also damaged numerous power lines and transformers. Two people were injured. At 6:07 PM EST, the tornado left the independent city of Lynchburg, crossed the James River, and continued 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 → (37.3416, -79.2367)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 748629. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.