COURTLAND, Va. (WAVY) — The National Weather Service has determined that straight-line winds caused the damage to the Southampton County Fairgrounds over the weekend.

The Fair’s official Facebook page posted photos Sunday evening with a caption suggesting a tornado had hit the area. NWS officials surveyed the area Monday to gather enough information to make the determination.

The damage was sufficient enough to lead to the cancellation of the Franklin-Southampton County Fair, which was supposed to take place Aug. 7-10.

According to the NWS release, wind speeds reached up to 90 mph.

So, what causes straight line winds? WAVY meteorologist Steve Fundaro explained they’re a phenomenon that can occur during thunderstorms:

“The rising air that forms a thunderstorm drastically cools when it reaches the upper levels of the atmosphere, and just like all things that go up, they must come down,” he said. “Cool air is denser and heavier than its surrounding warm air, so the newly cooled air rushes down from the tops of a thunderstorm and blasts outward at ground level.”

County Administrator Brian Thrower said the damage was, fortunately, limited to the fairgrounds area. Miraculously, no one was killed or even injured.

“It didn’t hit any of the other houses [nearby],” he said. “It just hit that one spot in the fairgrounds property, so luckily it was just localized to that area and only did damage there.”

The National Weather Service in Wakefield described what happened:

An area of intense thunderstorm straight-line winds began south of the Southampton County Fairgrounds and snapped several trees. The winds also picked up large tree limbs and blew them up to 100 feet away and caused extensive damage to a couple of wooden outbuildings in the fairgrounds. The outbuilding roofs completely collapsed and the walls sustained significant damage. The path of straight line winds continued to the north and blew open an overhead door of a metal building on the north side of the fairgrounds. The winds then snapped a few more trees near the VDOT Franklin Yard, and along the south side of New Market Road. Peak wind gusts at the fairgrounds were estimated at 80-90 mph.

A separate area of thunderstorm wind damage was observed at Riverdale Elementary School, where a small shed was blown over and a few large tree limbs were downed. Peak wind gusts were estimated at around 60 mph.

National Weather Service Information Statement