F0 tornado, Orange, Virginia, September 10, 1997

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.

Rating

F0

Date

September 10, 1997

Touchdown

5:45 PM EDT (21:45 UTC)

Path length

0.2 miles (0.3 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Orange County

Touchdown point

38.220, -78.120

Lift-off point

38.220, -78.120

Record number

1034

Deep southerly flow of modified tropical air produce two small spin-up tornadoes in the western Virginia piedmont during the late afternoon. The first touchdown occurred near Orange. A witness at the Piedmont Research Center saw a funnel cloud briefly touch down into a field, causing a debris swirl (most likely dirt and grass). The tornado lifted as quickly as it touched down, near federal highway 15. A survey team noted only a swirling effect flattened grass in the field.A stronger twister touched down about an hour later near Radiant. The twister, witnessed by several onlookers, first moved across a farm field, causing minor damage to a building and an adjacent satellite dish before flipping an empty livestock truck. The truck, which landed on hay bales, was undamaged. The storm moved through a wooded area, then moved into a residential area where a dozen trees were uprooted or snapped. Minor damage was sustained to the houses. The twister then dissipated. Estimated winds ranged from 70 to 80 mph.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:57 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:45 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 1997 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.