EF3 tornado, Howertons to Farmers Fork, Virginia, February 24, 2016

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

February 24, 2016

Touchdown

6:34 PM EST (23:34 UTC)

Lifted

7:05 PM EST (00:05 UTC)

On the ground

31 minutes

Path length

30.3 miles (48.8 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

25

Property damage

$9.2 million

Crop damage

$833,000

Counties

King and Queen, Essex, Richmond and Westmoreland counties

Touchdown point

37.800, -76.999

Lift-off point

38.158, -76.688

Record number

1602241734-01

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

Tornado tracked from King and Queen county into Essex county as an intensifying, high end EF1 severely damaging several homes along Dunbrook Road. The tornado continued to intensify crossing Perkins Road as an EF2 before hitting Kino Road as an EF3 tornado. Along Kino Road, all the homes in the path including three modular homes, two double wide mobile homes and one single wide mobile home were completely destroyed with most of the debris carried away. Tree damage was severe and winds were estimated at 140 to 150 mph based on damage. Everyone impacted by the tornado along Kino Road suffered injuries, some life threatening. After leaving the Kino Road area, the tornado crossed Scotts Mill Road just west of Tappahannock as a high end EF2 tornado causing severe tree damage, severely damaging numerous homes and causing the collapse of several garages and outbuildings. The tornado passed just west of downtown Tappahannock, crossing Highway 17 as an EF1 tornado and severely damaging homes on Tuckaway Lane and Highway 17. The tornado then crossed the Rappahannock River and into Richmond county.

Tornado crossed the Rappahannock River from Essex county into Richmond county. The tornado struck Naylors Beach as an EF2 tornado removing significant portions of the upper floor of one two story home and destroying several other smaller homes. At this point, the tornado was 300 yards wide with winds around 120 mph. The tornado then crossed Newland Road, weakening slightly to low end EF1 with winds around 90 mph and continuing to Tallent Town Road and Piney Grove Road. The tornado then tracked into Westmoreland county.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS AKQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:14 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:56 UTC and running to 03:17 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 20:02 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.

Tappahannock (XSA), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:33 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 2016 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

25 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.