EF1 tornado in Portsmouth (c) County, Virginia

Tornado April 28, 2008 · Portsmouth (c) County, Virginia

EF1

Rating

24.0 mi

Whole path

300 yd

Path width

200

Injuries

$30.2M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Suffolk (c) County → Portsmouth (c) County → Norfolk (c) County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 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 moved from northeast Suffolk across northern portions of Portsmouth. The tornado maintained close contact with the ground and downed several trees and produced some structural damage. While in Suffolk, the tornado was rated as EF3, but in Portsmouth it was rated as EF1.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms in advance of a cold front produced numerous tornadoes across central and eastern Virginia.

Began near Portsmouth (36.8903, -76.4084).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

9 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Brunswick County EF1 Colonial Heights (c) County EF1 Greensville County EF1 Surry County EF1 Isle of Wight County EF1 Mathews County EF0 Southampton County EF0 James City EF0 Gloucester County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 97546. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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