April 27-28, 2011 Severe Weather

Air Quality Concerns; Fire Weather; Extreme Heat; Flash Flooding

Wildfire smoke continues to result in poor air quality from the Upper Midwest into the Northeast. Dangerous heat and fire weather concerns for portions of the Four Corners region into the central Great Basin. Heavy rainfall and flash flooding possible for the Southeast through Monday. For Hawaii, gusty trade winds a drier weather could result in any fires that start to spread rapidly. Read More >

...EF-1 TORNADO CONFIRMED JUST SOUTHEAST OF HARRISONBURG VIRGINIA... LOCATION...KEEZLETOWN IN ROCKINGHAM COUNTY VA DATE...APRIL 28 2011 ESTIMATED TIME...3:55 AM TO 3:58 AM EDT MAXIMUM EF-SCALE RATING...EF-1 MAXIMUM WIND SPEED...90 MPH MAXIMUM PATH WIDTH...150 YARDS LENGTH...2.7 MILES BEGINNING LAT/LON...38.388N / 78.865W ENDING LAT/LON...38.416N / 78.832W * FATALITIES...NONE * INJURIES...NONE * THE INFORMATION IN THIS STATEMENT IS PRELIMINARY AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE PENDING FINAL REVIEW OF THE EVENT/S/ AND PUBLICATION IN NWS STORM DATA. ...SUMMARY... A GROUND SURVEY CONDUCTED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE...TOGETHER WITH RADAR AND EYEWITNESS REPORTS DETERMINED THAT AN EF-1 TORNADO TRACKED JUST SOUTHEAST OF THE CITY OF HARRISONBURG ALONG BOYER ROAD. THE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN ALONG OSCEOLA SPRINGS ROAD CAUSING TREE DAMAGE...THEN PROCEEDED NORTHEAST TO BOYER ROAD. THE TORNADO UPROOTED AND SNAPPED NUMEROUS LARGE TREES... UPROOTED MOST OF A PERSONAL APPLE ORCHARD...CAUSED STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO TWO HOMES BY LIFTING THEIR ROOFS...DAMAGED TWO BARN ROOFS...KNOCKED DOWN GRAVESTONES...DESTROYED A METAL SHED...AND MOVED A LIVESTOCK TRAILER SEVERAL FEET. THE STORM CROSSED US ROUTE 33 AND LIFTED WHEN IT REACHED THE RIDGE ADJACENT TO IT.