EF0 tornado, Vesuvius, Virginia, April 16, 2011

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

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

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

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

6. EF5over 200 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

EF0

Date

April 16, 2011

Touchdown

2:03 PM EDT (18:03 UTC)

Lifted

2:04 PM EDT (18:04 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

1.3 miles (2.1 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$6,000

County

Rockbridge County

Touchdown point

37.901, -79.202

Lift-off point

37.917, -79.189

Record number

1104161203-01

A strong closed upper level low pressure moved across the Ohio valley, producing a variety of extreme weather across southwest Virginia. In advance of this system,|strong southeast winds produced wind damage across the higher elevations. These southeast winds also provided strong upslope lifting along the Blue Ridge. This helped produce heavy rainfall amounts of 2 to 3 inches and areas of flash flooding. Enough heating occurred ahead of the cold front on the 16th to trigger severe thunderstorms along and east of the Blue Ridge, resulting in widespread thunderstorm wind damage and two tornadoes. Behind the storms, strong northwest winds knocked down many trees given the very wet soil conditions.

The tornado touched down along South River Road a little less than a half mile south of the intersection with Highway 56. There was minor damage to a garage, house and barn along South River Road. Several cedar trees were also snapped off at this location. The tornado continued northeast with intermittent damage to trees and the siding of some homes. The tornado crossed Route 56 and lifted near the Augusta County border. Along South River Road in Vesuvius a large cedar tree was uprooted and fell on a metal carport. Winds were estimated to be up to 85 MPH with this tornado.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS RNK issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:43 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:46 UTC and running to 19:56 UTC.

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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:31 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 Roanoke radar (KFCX), 137 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:02 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 2011 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

56 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.