Home / Virginia / Rockingham

EF0 tornado in Rockingham County, Virginia

Tornado October 31, 2019 · Rockingham County, Virginia

EF0

Rating

0.5 mi

Path length

25 yd

Path width

$30K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 25 yards (0.01 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 appeared to begin in a corn field on a property on the

southwest side of Henkel Lane, where corn stalks were flattened in a

narrow, meandering path, over an area about 25 yards wide. As this

path meandered northeastward, it crossed a grove of healthy trees,

most of which had substantial numbers of their large top branches

snapped off. It then proceeded across an old barn which was

destroyed. A 2 by 6 piece of lumber from the barn impaled the

windshield of a nearby SUV, whose hood was also peeled back from the

wind.

Damage continued across a corn field on the northeast side of Henkel

Lane. A small shed was destroyed on a property just south of

VA-211 New Market Road. Here a small tree was uprooted, and

several branches were downed across the roadway.

In addition, several large trees were downed along Birdview Lane,

all facing the same direction about a mile and a half to the

southwest of the confirmed tornado path.

The wider storm

A strong cold front passed through during the evening of the 31st. A southerly flow led to warm and humid conditions ahead of the boundary, which caused an unstable atmosphere. The instability along with the cold front caused showers and isolated thunderstorms, some of which were able to mix down strong winds from aloft.

Began near Hupp (38.6366, -78.7140).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 862733. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.