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EF1 tornado in Bedford County, Virginia

Tornado April 19, 2019 · Bedford County, Virginia

EF1

Rating

2.2 mi

Path length

60 yd

Path width

$75K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 60 yards (0.03 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

The tornado touched near Patterson Mill Road, about 2.5 miles north of Thaxton, VA. The tornado stayed on the ground for three minutes, heading nearly due north, uprooting or snapping trees in its path, one of which crushed a storage shed. The tornado destroyed one outbuilding off Centennial Road before dissipating. Damage values are estimated.

The wider storm

A strong area of low pressure moved from the Mississippi Valley into the Tennessee Valley. The atmosphere in advance of this system was ripe for the development of rotating thunderstorms. Some of these storms produced damaging winds. However, two thunderstorms increased in enough rotational intensity to generate tornadoes. An EF3 Tornado occurred in Franklin County and an EF1 tornado occurred in Bedford County.

Began near Thaxton (37.3858, -79.6085).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Franklin County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 821313. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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