ROANOKE, Va. – The weather is very calm compared to what we were tracking on this day four years ago when multiple tornadoes moved through southwest and central Virginia.
The strongest was an EF-3 twister that traveled nearly 26 miles from Timberlake to Elon, causing millions of dollars in damage and resulting in a dozen injuries.
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There were five other tornadoes that day.
Four were of EF-1 strength, and one was an EF-0. Most of these were east of the Blue Ridge Parkway, but there was one in Craig County. This once again debunks the myth that mountains completely protect us from these kinds of storms.
That’s especially the case when the weather pattern was as favorable as it was for tornadoes to occur. Below is the map drawn from surface observations.
This shows a squall line moving into very warm and humid air. Low pressure along the Southern Appalachians caused the wind to come in out of the southeast at ground level.
That’s important!
Above the surface, low pressure to the west caused the air to come in (very quickly) out of the south and southwest.
That not only pumped in the warmth and moisture necessary for thunderstorms to develop, but it induced rotation from bottom to top in the atmosphere.
The EF-3 that moved through Lynchburg, Campbell County and Amherst County was one of only a dozen to impact the U.S. in 2018. The National Weather Service in Blacksburg said, “Our records show that since 1950, this is the first-ever tornado within the Lynchburg city limits and the first-ever EF-3 in Amherst County.”
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