![]() ![]() Tornado researcher Ted Fujita, who prepared this map, was an early trailblazer in surveying tornado tracks. The original tornado path map for the April 3-4, 1974, Super Outbreak includes a few paths in Southwest VIrginia, one being the deadly tornado at Saltville, and one in the Roanoke Valley. ![]() One of the Grayson County tornadoes heavily damaged Grindstone Campground at 3,800 feet elevation, spawned by a thunderstorm that crossed Mount Rogers, the highest point in Virginia at over 5,700 feet, defying frequently repeated myths about how mountains affect tornadoes. Courtesy of VDOT.Ī total of 19 tornadoes occurred in Virginia on April 27-28, 2011, with two additional tornadoes in Washington County and others affecting mostly rural areas of Grayson, Prince Edward and Botetourt counties within our region. Gates Corporation was heavily damaged in the April 2011 tornado in Washington County. The tornado paralleled a path of a similar EF-2 that traveled 26 miles out of North Carolina across southeastern Halifax County 11 days earlier, leaving South Boston and Halifax safely in the middle of the two paths. Courtesy of Midwest Regional Climate Center.Įarlier, on the evening of April 27, an EF-2 tornado killed one traveling a path 18 miles long through mostly rural portions of northern and western Halifax County. The outlines of Halifax and South Boston can be seen in the middle of map, bypassed on either side by the tornadoes. The northernmost track claimed the life of one person on April 27. This map of tornado tracks since 1950 shows two long tracks parallel across Halifax County in 2011, occurring 11 days apart on April 16 and 27. The Glade Spring tornado is blamed for four deaths (three directly, one indirectly) and over $78 million in damage, much of it very near to Interstate 81, including at a Petro Truck Stop where tractor-trailers were tossed around like firewood. ![]() Courtesy of VDOT.Īpril 27-28, 2011: Glade Spring and Halifax CountyĪn EF-3 tornado with winds up to 140 mph ripped through Glade Spring amid a 20-mile long path in Washington and Smyth counties shortly after midnight on April 28, part of the 2011 Super Outbreak in which 360 tornadoes touched down in 21 states over four days, 216 on April 27 alone. The Petro Truck Stop on Interstate 81 was hit by the April 2011 tornado at Glade Spring. This and other April tornado anniversaries are recalled below. We can also breathe a sigh of relief that it has been seven years since the last tornado deaths in the Cardinal News coverage area, generally covering the state from the James River south to the North Carolina line and west of Interstate 85, those occurring in the February 2016 Appomattox County tornado.īefore that, the last tornado deaths in our region occurred a dozen years ago Thursday and Friday, on April 27-28, 2011, with five people killed in separate tornadoes affecting different portions of our region. (See the second section of this column for a discussion of the current weather pattern.) ![]() Although April looks likely to end soggy with the southward-dipping jet stream, the persistently cooler air will sap the instability that would be needed for tornado-producing thunderstorms. Severe storms have been fairly sparse this month, and a cooler-than-normal weather pattern has settled in and will continue into next week. We are apparently going to get through this month without any tornado reports across Southwest and Southside Virginia, having crossed multiple anniversaries of notable April tornadoes that have struck some heavily populated parts of our region over the past five decades. Want to be the first to see weather news? Sign up for our weekly email weather newsletter, featuring weather journalist Kevin Myatt. ![]()
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