Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 1973

F0 tornado, Henrico County, Virginia, June 16, 1973

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Henrico County on June 16, 1973, touching down at 4:00 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did under $50 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 16, 1973
Touchdown
4:00 PM EDT (20:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
under $50
County
Henrico County
Touchdown point
37.530, -77.370
Record number
626

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 12:00Z

8.0 hours before the tornado, 158 km from the path. June 16, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 1973-06-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 196 joules per kilogram, CIN -113, lifted condensation level 709 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 1973-06-16The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 81 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
196 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-113 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
709 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
87 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 00:00Z

4.0 hours after it, 158 km from the path. June 17, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 1973-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1746 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 997 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 1973-06-17The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 90 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1746 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1752 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
997 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
169 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Richmond/Byrd Field (RIC), 5 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:00 UTC7969210° 10 kt1010.8DZ
19:00 UTC79.8869200° 11 kt181009.8DZ
20:00 UTC79.8869190° 10 kt1009.1TS DZ
21:00 UTC7871230° 8 kt1008.1-TSRA DZ
21:19 UTC210° 10 kt1007.8DZ

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1973 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 16, 1973

24 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 161:45 AM CDTF0Crow Wing, MN20.130$500 to $5,000
June 162:12 PM ESTF1Pulaski, IN1.050$50,000 to $500,000
June 162:25 PM CDTF0McHenry, IL0.110
June 163:15 PM CDTF0Cook, IL0.110
June 164:45 PM CDTF2Buchanan, MO6.01014$500,000 to $5 million
June 165:50 PM EDTF2Baltimore, MD0.1104$5,000 to $50,000
June 165:30 PM CDTF0Kankakee, IL0.110
June 166:50 PM EDTF1Harford, MD0.110$500 to $5,000
June 166:15 PM CDTF1Ransom, ND0.110
June 166:20 PM CDTF1Griggs, ND0.110
June 166:30 PM CDTF1Pittsburg, OK30.91002$5,000 to $50,000
June 166:45 PM CDTF0Clarke, IA1.050$5,000 to $50,000
June 168:05 PM EDTF1Lenawee, MI2.550$5,000 to $50,000
June 167:15 PM CDTF3Traill, ND0.110$50,000 to $500,000
June 167:30 PM CDTF1Adams, IL0.110
June 167:40 PM CDTF1Hancock, IL0.110
June 167:45 PM CDTF0Des Moines, IA0.5100$5,000 to $50,000
June 169:10 PM EDTF1Clark, IN0.120$5,000 to $50,000
June 168:20 PM CDTF1Adair, OK0.140$500 to $5,000
June 168:45 PM CDTF1Black Hawk, IA0.550$50,000 to $500,000
June 169:35 PM CDTF0Logan, IL0.110
June 169:35 PM CDTF0Menard, IL0.110
June 169:58 PM CDTF0Sangamon, IL0.110
June 1610:40 PM CDTF1Becker, MN5.260$50,000 to $500,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.