Tree downed on a home at Duffield in Scott County, as seen from drone phography. Courtesy of Billy Bowling.
Tree downed on a home at Duffield in Scott County, as seen from drone phography. Courtesy of Billy Bowling.

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At least two tornadoes have been confirmed in Southwest Virginia from Tuesday’s thunderstorms.

Near Duffield in Scott County, a 30-yard-wide tornado with 100 mph estimated winds traveled slightly more than half a mile, uprooting trees.

In Lee County just north of Pattonsville, a 50-yard-wide tornado with 100 mph winds traveled 1.3 miles, also affecting only trees.

Both tornadoes were rated EF-1 on the 0 to 5 Enhanced Fujita Scale, a tornado intensity scale based on observed damage.

The National Weather Service office in Morristown, Tennessee, also surveyed damage at Pennington Gap in Lee County, where a strip mall was heavily damaged, but found that 2.5-mile-long swath of damage was caused by straight-line winds of 70 to 90 mph rather than a tornado.

Numerous instances of wind damage occurred in areas west of Interstate 77 and in Virginia’s southern rim of counties to the east through Southside as a series of thunderstorms affected the region Tuesday afternoon and evening.

For more on the weather conditions that set up this week’s storms, see Kevin Myatt’s weekly column.

Here's where the tornadoes were. Courtesy of National Weather Service.
A tornado warning was issued Tuesday evening that included Duffield, where a tornado has been confirmed, and Pennington Gap, where a survey is ongoing to determine if a tornado occurred.
Tree twisted down near home at Duffield in Scott County, as seen from drone phography. Courtesy of Billy Bowling
Tree twisted down near home at Duffield in Scott County, as seen from drone phography. Courtesy of Billy Bowling

Kevin Myatt has written about Southwest and Southside Virginia weather for the past two decades, previously...