EF3 tornado, Homewood to Dutton, Virginia, April 16, 2011

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

April 16, 2011

Touchdown

6:45 PM EDT (22:45 UTC)

Lifted

7:20 PM EDT (23:20 UTC)

On the ground

35 minutes

Path length

26.5 miles (42.6 km)

Path width

800 yards (732 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

24

Property damage

$8.0 million

Counties

Surry, York, James City and Gloucester counties

Touchdown point

37.153, -76.704

Lift-off point

37.464, -76.424

Record number

1104161645-01

Scattered severe thunderstorms in advance of a cold front produced damaging winds, large hail, and numerous tornadoes across portions of central and eastern Virginia.

Tornado developed just south of the Surry Nuclear Power Plant and then continued across the James River into the Kingsmill section of James City county. Numerous trees were downed or sheared off, and some damage to buildings and vehicles was reported at the plant.

Tornado tracked from Surry county into the Kingsmill section of James City county . Several trees were downed or sheared off. A few homes and buildings were damaged.

Tornado tracked from James City county into York county. The tornado mainly affected the Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. Numerous trees were downed or sheared off, with no significant building damage reported.

Tornado tracked from York county into Gloucester county. The worst damage (EF2 and EF3 intensity) was in the southern part of Gloucester county near Clopton. A total of 15 homes were destroyed by the tornado, with an additional 29 homes sustaining major damage. Nearly 100 other structures sustained minor damage, or were affected by the tornado or the associated debris. Page Middle School was also severely damaged, with large parts of the school rendered unusable. School buses were overturned and tossed around by the tornado. Numerous trees and power lines were downed, with a number of other trees sheared off.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

34 minutes of warning. NWS AKQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:11 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:17 UTC and running to 00:58 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 20:03 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 Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:44 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.

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.