EF3 Tornado — Amherst, Virginia

2018-04-15 · near Dillard, Amherst, Virginia

Event narrative

This is the third and final 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 through the independent city of Lynchburg and eventually tracked over the James River into Amherst County at 6:08 PM EST. This was only the third EF3 tornado to occur in the NWS Blacksburg forecast since 1950, and was the longest track tornado within the state of Virginia for the NWS Blacksburg forecast area. The tornado reached its peak intensity with estimated maximum winds of 150 MPH as it crossed Route 130 and entered the town of Elon. A total of 166 homes suffered damage, and 22 of those homes were considered a total loss. A motor home was carried about thirty feet and tipped over. The hardest hit locations were along Nottaway Drive and Deerfield Drive. Seven people were injured and taken to the hospital from Elon. As the tornado continued north-northeastward out of Elon, it snapped or uprooted hundreds of trees and caused more minor roof damage to homes. At 6:25 PM EST, the tornado finally lifted as it began to head up Shady Mountain Ridge, which is about five and a half miles west-northwest of Amherst.

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 → (37.4586, -79.1838)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 748630. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.