EF0 tornado, Ruark, Virginia, November 9, 2025

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

November 9, 2025

Touchdown

9:35 PM EST (02:35 UTC)

Lifted

9:36 PM EST (02:36 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.7 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$35,000

County

Middlesex County

Touchdown point

37.535, -76.366

Lift-off point

37.537, -76.358

Record number

2511092035-01

22 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS AKQ, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• The tree that fell into a pool was hollow on the inside with significant rot or termite damage.
• Pool furniture was damaged.
• Two trees were twisted and on the ground. One tree was facing east and the other was facing northeast.
• Small twigs were embedded into the side of the house.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A cold front moved east across eastern Virginia during the evening of November 9. A seasonally moist and unstable airmass was in place ahead of the cold front, allowing for locally strong to severe storms. One storm produced a waterspout which moved onshore as a tornado in Middlesex County.

A velocity enhancement from a severe storm crossing the Piankatank River likely formed a waterspout over the river before moving onshore of Bland Point in Deltaville around 935 PM EST. A large oak tree fell on and caused damage to a pool and pool furniture. As the tornado moved almost due east, it twisted and snapped several trees|and large branches. Some pine tree branches were blown into a nearby house, breaking two large windows and a wooden window frame. The wind was strong enough to embed small pine twigs and branches into the stucco siding of the house. Additionally, a picnic table at this property was broken into pieces and thrown roughly 20 to 30 feet. A patch of shingles was damaged from a garage attached to another house at the apex of Bland Point. At this location, a sliding glass door frame was pushed inward. Additionally, balcony furniture was pushed hard enough to bend and partially dislodge the metal railing on the second story. Just outside of the house, 20 heavy duty pool chairs, some made out of polywood and some made out of aluminum, were lofted and thrown around|40 yards. Most of the chairs were broken or shattered. Debris from the pool furniture was thrown hard enough to dent the bark of a pine tree more than 50 yards from the pool. At this point, it appeared that the tornado turned to the northeast, following the shoreline. The winds were strong enough to rip a large metal sheet attached to an in-ground pool cover off of the pool and throw it into 2000 pound marble pillars nearby with enough force to both bend the metal at nearly a 90 degree angle and knock over a couple pillars. To the southeast of the pillars, several wooden planks were blown off of a wooden dock. The tornado then tracked likely along or just offshore of the shoreline for around 220 yards, twisting and snapping several additional trees, before dissipating around 936 PM EST.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:45 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.

Saluda Hummel Field (W75), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:36 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 2025 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

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.