McGaheysville, Va. (WHSV) - While tornadoes do happen in our area, it’s much more rare for two to touch down on the same day, let alone in the morning. Tornadoes can happen at any time of the day but they are more likely to touch down in the afternoon or evening during the peak of instability and daytime heating. With these tornadoes in April of 1952, this would have been two different storm cells.

*Chief Meteorologist Aubrey Urbanowicz is still looking for help with some details. If you happen to have a memory, or old storm damage photos of this event, Please send an email to aubrey.urbanowicz@whsv.com. I am also still looking for assistance with property locations so we can accurately re-create the path. Tornado track maps from old tornadoes are slightly off with the path, so using damage and

Tornado 1: Harriston at 10:15 AM

This was a short track tornado. Officially according to the NWS records, it traveled a mile. However, I believe this could have been closer to 2 miles but I need help pinpointing locations of the damaged farms involved.

The tornado likely started around Rockfish Road and moved northeast into Harriston. There were also two injuries. Mr. Henry Rankin and his teenage son William were severely injured. Both were trying to shelter from the storm in a barn, and the barn was heavily damaged as the tornado cut a path through the Patterson property.

Properties affected: Dr. William Patterson, SQ Patterson, Horace Patterson, A.C. Wilson

According to newspaper reports, SQ and his son Charles were going to take shelter in the barn when the tornado nearly destroyed it. They were not in the barn so they were uninured. Horace Patterson lost 3 cows to the storm but one newspaper report said that 8 cows were trapped in the hay barn when it was hit by the tornado. Three cows did not make it.

I am still looking to identify the location of Mr. Wilsons property and Dr. Patterson.

Tornado 2: Mcgaheysville to Elkton at 11:00 am

This tornado did much more damage and had a much longer path. This may be anywhere from 5-7 miles long. The was a great number of farms damaged and thousands of turkeys killed.

Properties affected: C.C. Housh who lived at the corner of East Point Road and Florist Road lost a number of turkeys. The Mount Olivet Christian Church was damaged.

J.E. Frazier also lost a number of turkeys when his brooder house was destroyed and he had quite a bit of damage to his property.

Elizabeth Harnesberger owned River Bend Farm on Nicholson Road, and her barn was heavily damaged. Oddly enough, another Harnesberger family member had a property struck by the 1881 tornado in Port Republic.

Other properties damaged, H.T Wilson, Cora Monger, G. J. Hensley, Herman Michael, the Diehl house, and Elwood Lam

The tornado also damaged the fence and ball park in Elkton. No other damage in Elkton seems to have been reported by the newspapers.

The damaged described is quite extensive, so there likely are some damage photos somewhere.

Copyright 2025 WHSV. All rights reserved.