F1 tornado, Paytes, Virginia, April 9, 1999

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

April 9, 1999

Touchdown

6:17 PM EDT (22:17 UTC)

Path length

3.5 miles (5.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Spotsylvania County

Touchdown point

38.230, -77.800

Lift-off point

38.180, -77.780

Record number

247

Between 6:10 PM and 6:25 PM EDT, a line of thunderstorms moved east from Orange County into Spotsylvania County. Strong winds associated with the gust front ahead of the storms produced scattered tree damage in Eastern Orange County and Western Spotsylvania County. Areas affected include Gold Dale, Mine Run, Paytes, Granite Springs, and Porters. Over 100 trees were damaged; some were uprooted, some were snapped, and others lost large branches. The strong winds also bent several home antennas and blew off several roof shingles. A small tornado developed with one of the storms near Mine Run. The tornado first touched down around 6:17 PM EDT on the Orange/Spotsylvania County line in a small community 1 mile north of Paytes. The tornado travelled southeast about 3 1/2 miles and lifted just east of Mastins Corner around 6:23 PM EDT. The average path width was about 100 yards. Much of the damage was rated F0 for 40 to 70 mph winds, but some locations received 70 to 90 mph winds and F1 damage. The F1 damage occurred around 2 miles east of Paytes through a densely wooded area where numerous large trees, both pines and hardwoods, were uprooted or snapped. The hardwoods did not have leaves at the time, so a stronger wind was required to damage them. Eight homes along the path of the tornado sustained minor damage,and seven sheds were damaged or destroyed. Most of the structural damage occurred in a residential community 1 mile northeast of Paytes. The same storm system was also responsible for downing trees and power lines as it passed through the Fredericksburg area. The storm hit Fredericksburg around 7:00 PM EDT and left about 5,000 customers without power.

Several sheds destroyed, Trees Downed, Minor Damage to Homes

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:11 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), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:17 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 1999 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

8 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.