Blacksburg, VA

Weather Forecast Office

Tornadoes of April 19th, 2019

Overview

An amplified upper trough with strong low level winds and instability created an environment for strong to severe thunderstorms with isolated tornadoes. There were 2 tornadoes confirmed in our area. The strongest of which was an EF-3 that touched down in southern Franklin County, near Oak Level. Wind speeds were estimated to close to 160 mph. This makes the 2nd EF-3 our area has had since last April (that one being in Amherst County near Elon, VA). And this is only the fourth confirmed EF-3 tornado in our forecast area. The 1st was the March 20th, 1998. The second was February 24th, 2016 in Appomattox County (Evergreen).

The Franklin County tornado was on the ground for just over 8 miles. A second tornado formed north of Thaxton, VA in Bedford County, but was weaker with estimated winds of just over 90 mph, which rates as an EF-1.

In addition to these tornadoes, the air mass was quite moist, and several storms passed over the New River Valley leading to flash flooding of Peak Creek in Pulaski, VA.

Tornado
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Radar

Tornadoes:

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Tornado - Oak Level to Henry Fork
FRANKLIN COUNTY

Date	April 19th, 2019
Time (Local)	10:25 AM - 10:35 AM
EF Rating	EF-3
Est. Peak Winds	159 MPH
Path Length	8.2 Miles
Max Width	250 Yards
Injuries/Deaths	2/0
Summary: A tornado touched down Friday morning just to the north of Oak Level in Franklin county. The tornado moved northeastward, significantly damaging three structures while heavily damaging or destroying ten outbuildings. The tornado reached a peak intensity of EF-3 near Windy Ridge Road and again near Sealtest Lane. The tornado eventually dissipated to the east of Henry Fork, four miles southeast of Rocky Mount, just short of Doe Run Road.

Track Map

Downloadable KMZ File

Tornado - North of Thaxton, VA
BEDFORD COUNTY

Date	April 19th, 2019
Time (Local)	11:22 AM - 11:25 AM
EF Rating	EF-1
Est. Peak Winds	93 MPH
Path Length	1.8 Miles
Max Width	60 Yards
Injuries/Deaths	0/0
Summary: The NWS Damage Survey has concluded that an EF1 tornado touched down about 2.5 miles north of Thaxton, VA in Bedford County, around 11:22 AM EDT. The initial touchdown was near Patterson Mill Road. The tornado stayed on the ground for about 3 minutes or for about 1.8 miles, uprooting or snapping trees. The tornado destroyed an outbuilding off of Centennial Road, before dissipating.

Track Map

Downloadable KMZ File

The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories:

EF0 Weak 65-85 mph	EF1 Moderate 86-110 mph	EF2 Significant 111-135 mph	EF3 Severe 136-165 mph	EF4 Extreme 166-200 mph	EF5 Catastrophic 200+ mph

Photos


Sontag, VA Tornado (C. Mitchell)	Franklin County, VA Tornado (T, Woody)	Fishburn Mountain Rd Modular Home destroyed (NWS Blacksburg Survey)	Windy Ridge Rd Home destroyed (NWS Blacksburg Survey)

Peak Creek Flooding Pulaski, VA (M. Gwinn)	Peak Creek Flooding Pulaski, VA (M. Gwinn)

Radar

The radar images below from left to right show a 4-panel sequence over a couple of minutes centered over southern Franklin County, VA. In each image, the upper left is Correlation Coefficient which provides a measure of the consistency of the shapes and sizes of targets within the radar beam. A higher value shows more consistency in the size and shape of radar targets, while a lower value indicates greater variability in shapes and sizes. During tornado threats, we look for lower values embedded with higher values which can be an indication of tornado debris and radar-confirmation that a tornado is doing damage. This usually occurs with stronger tornadoes. You can see especially in images 2 and 3 where a small area where these values begin decrease with time (more blue colors). The upper right panel in each image is storm relative motion (velocity). Green colors indicate motion toward the radar, and red is motion away from the radar. The radar in these images is to the west. Notice the tight rotation to the left of the white arrow. The lower left panel is a calculated rotation or shear intensity, normalized for the range from the radar (without range-normalization the calculated shear will tend to appear stronger closer to the radar). The lower right panel is reflectivity (related to precipitation intensity). The time of the middle image below (10:30 AM EDT) was close to the time the modular home on Fishburn Mountain Road was destroyed. The far right image below was close to the time the house on Windy Ridge Road was destroyed.

radar images courtesy of Gibson Ridge Software


4-panel CC/SRM/NROT/ZR 10:28 AM EDT, April 19th, 2019	4-panel CC/SRM/NROT/ZR 10:30 AM EDT, April 19th, 2019	4-panel CC/SRM/NROT/ZR 10:31 AM EDT, April 19th, 2019

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