Deadly tornadoes a first for February
The tornadoes that killed four people in Virginia on Wednesday were the state’s first deadly February twisters on record.
Three people died in the small town of Waverly and a fourth person was killed in Appomattox County, according to local officials.
The Waverly tornado was rated an EF-1 with wind speeds estimated at 100 to 110 mph, the National Weather Service said Thursday.
The Appomattox tornado was rated an EF-3, with wind speeds estimated at 136 to 165 mph, according to the weather service. This made it the strongest February tornado ever recorded in Virginia.
Prior to this year, just 15 tornadoes were recorded since 1950 in the state during the month of February, said meteorologist Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory.
All 15 were rated F0 or F1, Brooks said, the two weakest levels of tornado intensity.
(Before 2007, the scale was called the Fujita scale. In 2007, it was changed to the “Enhanced Fujita” scale.)
The U.S. typically sees about 29 tornadoes in February each year, but they’re usually in southern states such as Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama, the National Centers for Environmental Information reports.
The four deaths in Virginia raised the two-day toll to eight after a line of vicious storms advanced from the South. Other deaths were reported in Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina.