F1 tornado, Callands, Virginia, February 4, 2006

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

February 4, 2006

Touchdown

3:05 PM EST (20:05 UTC)

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$90,000

County

Pittsylvania County

Touchdown point

36.800, -79.550

Lift-off point

36.820, -79.530

Record number

53

A fast moving thunderstorm spawned two weak tornadoes over western Pittsylvania County during the afternoon of the 4th. A tornado initially touched down 2 miles southeast of Callands and removed a well built wood frame carport from the side of a house and carried this debris 50 feet. This tornado proceeded north-northeast through a wooded area, and then crossed Highway 57, 3 miles east of Callands. Damage here was on the western side of the tornado track, with damage to a church. The damage include vinyl siding being ripped off two sides of the church, shingles torn off, and the brick sign in front of the church toppled over. The east side of the damage path saw several outbuildings and storage sheds demolished, part of a roof of a home torn off, and a small brick chimney knocked over. Besides structural damage, this first tornado snapped or uprooted many trees. The damage here was consistent with an F1 tornado.One person suffered minor injuries while driving in the vicinity of the tornado.A second F0 tornado touched down briefly 3.5 miles northeast of Callands. This tornado blew out underpinnings on 2 mobile homes, and tore off a large piece of aluminum siding from a barn. Within this thunderstorm, straight line wind damage was also observed, with trees downed outside the path of the tornadoes.Other severe thunderstorms downed trees in Halifax and Pittsylvania counties.

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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.

Danville Regional (DAN), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Roanoke radar (KFCX), 69 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:06 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 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.