F1 tornado, Renan, Virginia, June 10, 1996

1. F040 to 72 mph

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

2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F1

Date

June 10, 1996

Touchdown

9:45 AM EDT (13:45 UTC)

Path length

1.1 miles (1.8 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$90,000

County

Pittsylvania County

Touchdown point

36.970, -79.200

Lift-off point

36.980, -79.200

Record number

397

Thunderstorms during the morning hours on the 10th produced two tornadoes, damaging winds and flash flooding.A tornado developed 3 miles south-southwest of Axton at 0722 EST and traveled 1.5 miles northeast before dissipating 2 miles south of Axton at 0728 EST. This F1 tornado damaged 3 houses, tore the roof off another house, destroyed 6 outbuildings, damaged a barn and a shed, uprooted and snapped off numerous trees and knocked down power lines and power poles. A second tornado developed 0.5 miles northwest of Renan at 0845 EST and traveled 1.1 miles northeast before dissipating 1 mile north-northeast of Renan at 0848 EST. This F1 tornado broke out windows and tore the roof off a house, damaged the roof of another house, severely damaged one vehicle, damaged two other vehicles, damaged an abandoned school, tore the roof off of two out buildings knocked down power lines and power poles, damaged antennas, and snapped off or uprooted numerous trees.Thunderstorm winds broke off tree limbs and uprooted trees in portions of Chatham. Tree limbs damaged gutters and shingles of a few homes.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

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.

Lynchburg/P. Glenn (LYH), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Roanoke radar (KFCX), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 13:44 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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