Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2022

EF0 tornado, Mineral to Pendleton, Virginia, June 16, 2022

Name: EF0 tornado, Mineral to Pendleton, Virginia, June 16, 2022
Start: 2022-06-16T22:36:00.000Z
End: 2022-06-16T22:40:00.000Z
Location: Mineral to Pendleton, Virginia

From Mineral to Pendleton, this EF0 tornado ran 2.1 miles across Louisa County on June 16, 2022, touching down at 6:36 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $15,000 of property damage.

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 mphthis tornado
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.

The record

Rating: EF0
Date: June 16, 2022
Touchdown: 6:36 PM EDT (22:36 UTC)
Lifted: 6:40 PM EDT (22:40 UTC)
On the ground: 4 minutes
Path length: 2.1 miles (3.4 km)
Path width: 75 yards (69 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $15,000
County: Louisa County
Touchdown point: 38.020, -77.930
Lift-off point: 37.990, -77.920
Record number: 2206161636-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered severe thunderstorms associated with a warm front produced damaging winds, large hail, and three tornadoes across portions of central Virginia.

A brief EF0 tornado tracked just west of Mineral from the High School to Kennon Road. Trees and power lines were downed. Baseball stands and fencing were significantly damaged.

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

The warnings

0 minutes of warning. NWS AKQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:36 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)	Expired	Product	Office
21:45 UTC	22:30 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ
22:28 UTC	23:15 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ
22:36 UTC	23:15 UTC	Tornado Warning	AKQ
22:40 UTC	23:30 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	AKQ
22:52 UTC	23:15 UTC	Tornado Warning	AKQ
23:14 UTC	23:45 UTC	Tornado Warning	AKQ
23:42 UTC	00:15 UTC	Tornado Warning	AKQ

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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 air that afternoon

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.

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 12:00Z

10.6 hours before the tornado, 115 km from the path. June 16, 2022.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 238 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -307 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 917 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 23 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 137 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 158 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 00:00Z

1.4 hours after it, 115 km from the path. June 17, 2022.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 1923 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -143 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 2694 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 973 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 182 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 271 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.6
Supercell composite: 3.3
0-3 km lapse rate: 5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Louisa County/Freeman Field (LKU), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
20:55 UTC	85	77.4	150° 7 kt		1015.6
21:15 UTC	84.4	77	150° 6 kt		1015.9	VCTS
21:35 UTC	83	76.5	150° 8 kt		1015.2	VCTSRA
21:55 UTC	81.3	75.7	110° 10 kt	16	1014.9	-TSRA
22:15 UTC	81.5	74.8	200° 8 kt	17	1015.6	TS
22:35 UTC	76.3	69.8	40° 27 kt	35	1016.3	+TSRA
23:15 UTC	70	67.5	350° 18 kt	23	1018.6	+TSRA FG
23:35 UTC	69	68.5	240° 11 kt	15	1019	+TSRA BR
23:55 UTC	68.4	64.6	220° 9 kt	20	1016.3	+TSRA
00:15 UTC	67.5	64.4	210° 5 kt	17	1015.9	VCTSRA
00:35 UTC	66.7	64.6	230° 8 kt		1015.9	-VCTSRA

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

The radar

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 114 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:38 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Report	Where	County	Remark
21:19 UTC	HAIL 1	2 Nne Reva	Culpeper, VA
21:32 UTC	HAIL 0.75	4 Ese Reva	Culpeper, VA
21:54 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	2 Se Culpeper	Culpeper, VA	NUMEROUS TREES BLEW DOWN ALONG THE CORRIDOR OF JAMES MADISON HWY, ZACHARY TAYLOR HWY AND RAPIDAN RD.
22:06 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	3 Nnw Cookstown	Orange, VA	TREE BLEW DOWN ON PLANK ROAD NEAR CONSTITUTION HIGHWAY.
22:10 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	3 Sse Vawter Corner	Louisa, VA	TREES DOWN ELLISVILLE DR.
22:11 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	3 Ese Rochelle	Madison, VA	TREE DOWN IN THE 900 BLOCK OF LOCUST GROVE CHURCH RD.
22:11 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	3 Nne Old Somerset	Madison, VA	TREE DOWN AT THE INTERSECTION OF TATUMS SCHOOL RD. AND LOCUST GROVE CHURCH RD.
22:11 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	3 Sw Twymans Mill	Madison, VA	TREE DOWN ALONG WRIGHTS LN.
22:12 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	2 Ssw Stanardsville	Greene, VA	TREE DOWN IN THE 2000 BLOCK OF CELT RD.
22:21 UTC	FUNNEL CLOUD	Louisa	Louisa, VA	POSSIBLE FUNNEL CLOUD.
22:23 UTC	FUNNEL CLOUD	1 Wnw Louisa	Louisa, VA
22:25 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Orange	Orange, VA	MULTIPLE REPORTS OF TREES DOWN IN THE CITY OF ORANGE.
22:25 UTC	HAIL 1.25	Orange	Orange, VA
22:35 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	1 Wsw Pendleton	Louisa, VA	TREES DOWN KENNEN RD.
22:35 UTC	HAIL 1.25	Mineral	Louisa, VA	ELIZABETH TRICE WALTON PARK.
22:45 UTC	HAIL 3	Mineral	Louisa, VA
22:45 UTC	HAIL 1	6 Se Orange	Orange, VA
22:55 UTC	FUNNEL CLOUD	3 Ese Zion Crossroads	Louisa, VA
22:55 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	3 Sse Louisa Airport	Louisa, VA	TREES DOWN MT AIRY RD.
23:02 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Mineral	Louisa, VA	BASEBALL STANDS AND FENCING SIGNIFICANTLY DAMAGED.
23:24 UTC	HAIL 0.75	2 Ssw Trevilians	Louisa, VA	DIME.
23:47 UTC	TORNADO	2 Nw Irwin	Goochland, VA	PRELIMINARY SURVEY SHOWS WIDESPREAD UPROOTED AND SNAPPED TREES ON ROCK CASTLE AND OLD STAGE ROADS. 16 HOMES WERE DAMAGED. WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES. ESTIMATED WIDTH WAS 100 YARDS WITH A WIND SPEED OF 90 MPH.
23:55 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	2 Nw Irwin	Goochland, VA	2 TREES DOWNED ONTO A STRUCTURE.
00:00 UTC	FLOOD	2 Sw Orange	Orange, VA	ROUTE 635 SOUTH AT GREENWOOD ROAD CLOSED DUE TO HIGH WATER.
00:00 UTC	FLASH FLOOD	Orange	Orange, VA	MULTIPLE ROADS FLOODED IN AND AROUND THE CITY OF ORANGE.
00:10 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Fine Creek Mills	Powhatan, VA	NUMEROUS TREES DOWN.
00:15 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Subletts	Powhatan, VA	NUMEROUS TREES DOWN.
00:25 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Maidens	Goochland, VA	POWER OUTAGES.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2022 tornado in Virginia Every tornado in Virginia since 1950 Warnings in force in Virginia now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 16, 2022

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 16	6:27 PM EDT	EF0	Darlington, SC	3.7	25
June 16	7:05 PM EDT	EF1	Fluvanna, VA	21.5	150	$115,000
June 16	7:36 PM EDT	EF0	Fluvanna, VA	23.5	75	$45,000

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.