EF0 tornado, Bristow to Rixlew, Virginia, June 20, 2015

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

June 20, 2015

Touchdown

7:27 PM EDT (23:27 UTC)

Lifted

7:32 PM EDT (23:32 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.1 miles (3.3 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Prince William County

Touchdown point

38.732, -77.545

Lift-off point

38.746, -77.511

Record number

1506201727-01

A stalled frontal boundary acted as the triggering point for an initial line of showers and thunderstorms, with many of the storms becoming severe with strong moisture advection combining with diurnal heating and leading to an unstable air mass. The remnants of Tropical System Bill moved through the Mid-Atlantic overnight, continuing the severe threat late into the early part of the overnight hours. As winds backed with the tropical system, increasing directional and magnitude shear led to the development of tornadoes.

National Weather Service personnel completed a ground survey along with radar analysis and concluded a small tornado produced damage along a 2.1 mile path beginning near the intersection of Virginia State Route 28/Nokesville road/ and Linton Hall Road. The tornado then moved northeast along Route 28, ending it���s damage path at the baseball fields at the intersection of Godwin road and Route 28.||The tornado���s path width was approximately 100 yards. The bulk of the damage occurred at the Broad Run golf training center where about a half-dozen softwood trees between 12 and 18 inches in diameter were snapped approximately 4 feet above the ground. The damage at the baseball fields at the intersection of Route 28 and Godwin Road included a scoreboard secured by 4x4s being snapped, along with |baseball dugout roofs lifted and blown away. The damage was sporadic along the 2.1 mile path, but coincided with the tornadic signature as depicted on WSR-88D and FAA Terminal Doppler weather radar. No additional damage was noted northeast of Godwin road.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS LWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:05 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:24 UTC and running to 02:55 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 20:00 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), 27 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:26 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 2015 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.