Tornadoes · United States · Virginia

2017 tornadoes in Virginia

26 tornadoes touched down in Virginia in 2017, 136 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2016 2018 The whole country in 2017

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

Every tornado in Virginia in 2017

March 31 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 31	5:33 PM EDT	EF1	City of Suffolk	12.3	100			$250,000
March 31	6:13 PM EDT	EF2	City of Chesapeake	8.9	350			$7.9 million

April 6 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
April 6	12:09 PM EDT	EF1	Lancaster	3.7	200	$150,000
April 6	12:29 PM EDT	EF0	Orange	2.6	175
April 6	12:58 PM EDT	EF0	Fauquier	0.9	50
April 6	1:08 PM EDT	EF0	Fauquier	0.9	75
April 6	1:08 PM EDT	EF0	Fauquier	0.9	75
April 6	1:09 PM EDT	EF0	City of Chesapeake	4.4	100	$100,000
April 6	1:34 PM EDT	EF0	Fairfax	3.2	25
April 6	12:39 PM CDT	EF0	Arlington to DC	4.9	50

May 5 9 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 5	4:04 AM EDT	EF0	Bedford	0.3	100	$15,000
May 5	5:40 AM EDT	EF1	Mecklenburg	14.8	75	$200,000
May 5	6:13 AM EDT	EF0	Lunenburg	1.0	75	$20,000
May 5	6:40 AM EDT	EF0	Powhatan	0.4	75	$100,000
May 5	6:50 AM EDT	EF1	Dinwiddie	2.4	300	$450,000
May 5	7:09 AM EDT	EF1	Dinwiddie	2.3	150	$38,000
May 5	8:17 AM EDT	EF1	Orange	0.9	100
May 5	9:19 AM EDT	EF1	King George	1.2	10
May 5	7:55 PM EDT	EF0	Surry	4.9	75	$6,000

May 30 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 30	5:59 PM EDT	EF0	Clarke	0.5	25

August 7 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 7	2:51 PM EDT	EF0	Lancaster	2.1	50			$15,000

August 11 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 11	6:08 PM EDT	EF0	Fauquier	1.4	100

October 23 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
October 23	5:53 PM EDT	EF1	Grayson	0.6	150	$100,000
October 23	6:33 PM EDT	EF1	Pulaski	1.3	300	$500,000
October 23	6:35 PM EDT	EF1	Montgomery	1.7	300	$100,000

October 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
October 24	3:00 AM EDT	EF0	King William	0.4	75			$50,000

Nearby

Every tornado in Virginia since 1950 Warnings in force in Virginia The live radar over Virginia

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.