Hail and Damaging Wind in Virginia, July 27, 2014

Name: Hail and Damaging Wind in Virginia, July 27, 2014
Start: 2014-07-27T15:54
End: 2014-07-27T17:35
Location: Virginia

July 27, 2014 · NWS MRX · 8 events in 3 counties and zones

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 8

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS MRX wrote it up.

A potent upper-level storm system impacted the region on Sunday, July 27th, bringing severe weather along with locally heavy rainfall. There were several reports of straight-line wind damage and golf ball to baseball sized hail. A storm system of this magnitude is highly unusual for this time of year due to the strength of the front and the record cool temperatures it produced in the middle of the Summer season.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Morristown, TN wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 27, 1:42 PM EST, 2 hours 12 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 27, 1:42 PM EST, 2 hours 12 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN
242 PM EDT SUN JUL 27 2014

.SHORT TERM...(TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY)...MAIN FOCUS THIS
AFTERNOON IS ON THE CLUSTER OF SUPERCELL STORMS TRACKING SE OUT OF
ERN KY. SEEING SOME ROTATIONS AT TIMES...AND THESE STORMS MAY MOVE
NEAR AN OUTFLOW BOUNDARY FROM EARLIER STORMS. THE BOUNDARY MAY JUST
BE DUE TO DIFFERENTIAL HEATING...SINCE REMNANTS OF LATE NIGHT
STORMS KEPT CLOUDS OVER SW VA AND EXTREME NE TN TODAY.

RAP MODEL AND HRR DATA GENERALLY AGREE WITH NAM/GFS SOLUTIONS IN
THIS CONVECTION AFFECTING NRN AREAS INTO EARLY EVENING. KEPT AT
LEAST SCATTERED CONVECTION GOING BEYOND MIDNIGHT SINCE THE COLD
FRONT HAS TO DROP THROUGH THE REGION OVERNIGHT.

FRONTAL PASSAGE OCCURS EARLY MONDAY...SO COOLER TEMPS ARE ON THE
WAY. HOWEVER...NW FLOW ALOFT DOES HINT AT SOME PASSING WEAK
CONVECTION AND VERY LIGHT RAINFALL IN A FEW AREAS THROUGH TUESDAY.
THIS WAS PRETTY MUCH ALREADY IN THE GRIDS...SO I KEPT FOR NOW.

FOR TEMPS...GFS MOS LOOKED GOOD FOR MOST PERIODS...OR A BLEND WITH
NAM MOS.

.LONG TERM...(TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY)...THE FORECAST AREA SHOULD
CONTINUE TO ENJOY A BREAK IN THE PRECIPITATION TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH
MUCH OF THURSDAY AS DRIER NORTHWEST FLOW REMAINS IN PLACE. MOISTURE
WILL VERY SLOWLY RETURN TO THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION LATER
THURSDAY INTO FRIDAY AS THE EASTERN U.S. UPPER TROUGH STRENGTHENS.
SHORT WAVE FEATURES WILL BE ROTATING THROUGH THE BASE OF THE EASTERN
TROUGH ENHANCING PROBABILITY OF PRECIPITATION IN THE FORM OF SHOWERS
WITH THUNDER MORE LIKELY DURING THE DAYTIME HOURS WITH SUFFICIENTLY
WARM SURFACE THROUGH LOW LEVEL TEMPERATURES OVERLAIN BY CHILLY UPPER
LEVEL AIR UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE UPPER TROUGH. PERHAPS BEST
CHANCE OF RAIN WOULD BE FRIDAY INTO SATURDAY WITH A SLIGHT DECREASE
IN PROBABILITY BY SUNDAY AS THE OFFENDING TROUGH WEAKENS A BIT.
GUIDANCE TEMPERATURES ARE GETTING A LITTLE BETTER BUT STILL HAD TO
UNDERCUT BY SEVERAL DEGREES IN THE COOL PATTERN IN STORE THIS WEEK.

&&

.PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS...
CHATTANOOGA AIRPORT, TN             72  85  64  83 /  40  20  10  10
KNOXVILLE MCGHEE TYSON AIRPORT, TN  71  82  61  80 /  60  20  10  10
OAK RIDGE, TN                       70  82  60  80 /  60  10  10  10
TRI CITIES AIRPORT, TN              66  79  57  77 /  60  20  20  20

&&

.MRX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
NC...NONE.
TN...NONE.
VA...NONE.
&&

TG

Hazardous weather outlook, Jul 27, 4:00 AM EST, 11 hours 54 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN
500 AM EDT SUN JUL 27 2014

NCZ060-061-TNZ012>018-035>047-067>074-081>087-098>102-VAZ001-002-005-
006-008-281000-
CHEROKEE-CLAY-SCOTT TN-CAMPBELL-CLAIBORNE-HANCOCK-HAWKINS-SULLIVAN-
JOHNSON-MORGAN-ANDERSON-UNION-GRAINGER-HAMBLEN-NORTHWEST COCKE-COCKE
SMOKY MOUNTAINS-NORTHWEST GREENE-SOUTHEAST GREENE-WASHINGTON TN-
UNICOI-NORTHWEST CARTER-SOUTHEAST CARTER-ROANE-LOUDON-KNOX-JEFFERSON-
NW BLOUNT-BLOUNT SMOKY MOUNTAINS-NORTH SEVIER-SEVIER SMOKY MOUNTAINS-
SEQUATCHIE-BLEDSOE-RHEA-MEIGS-MCMINN-NORTHWEST MONROE-SOUTHEAST
MONROE-MARION-HAMILTON-BRADLEY-WEST POLK-EAST POLK-LEE-WISE-SCOTT-
RUSSELL-WASHINGTON-
500 AM EDT SUN JUL 27 2014

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR EAST TENNESSEE...SOUTHWEST
VIRGINIA...AND EXTREME SOUTHWEST NORTH CAROLINA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT...

A STRONG COLD FRONT...ALONG WITH ITS ASSOCIATED STRONG WIND FIELD...
WILL APPROACH THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION TODAY...TRIGGERING
NUMEROUS STRONG TO SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING.
THESE STORMS WILL HAVE THE POTENTIAL FOR WIDESPREAD DAMAGING
WINDS...VERY LARGE HAIL UP TO GOLFBALL SIZE...AND LOCALLY HEAVY
RAINFALL. IN ADDITION...AN ISOLATED TORNADO OR TWO WILL BE POSSIBLE.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY...

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL LIKELY BE NEEDED THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING.

DMG

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jul 27, 2:55 PM EST, 59 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN
355 PM EDT SUN JUL 27 2014

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0341 PM     HAIL             WINFIELD                36.56N 84.45W
07/27/2014  E1.75 INCH       SCOTT              TN   PUBLIC

&&

Local storm report, Jul 27, 3:44 PM EST, 10 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MORRISTOWN TN
444 PM EDT SUN JUL 27 2014

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0400 PM     HAIL             4 SW JELLICO            36.54N 84.18W
07/27/2014  E1.75 INCH       CAMPBELL           TN   911 CALL CENTER

&&

The radar

The Knoxville radar (KMRX), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:55 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

7 hail, 1 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Lee

When: July 27, 3:54 PM EST
Where: Lee County, 0.69 mi N of Pennington Gap
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Reported by: State Official
Coordinates: 36.760, -83.030

Golf ball sized hail was reported at Pennington Gap.

Hail, Lee

When: July 27, 4:00 PM EST
Where: Lee County, 0.69 mi N of Pennington Gap
Measured: 2.5 in hail
Reported by: Public
Coordinates: 36.760, -83.030

Tennis ball sized hail was reported at Pennington Gap.

Hail, Lee

When: July 27, 4:00 PM EST
Where: Lee County, 0.89 mi NW of Dryden
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Reported by: Public
Coordinates: 36.780, -82.940

Golf ball sized hail was reported at Dryden.

Hail, Lee

When: July 27, 4:03 PM EST
Where: Lee County, 0.89 mi NW of Dryden
Measured: 2 in hail
Reported by: Public
Coordinates: 36.780, -82.940

Hen egg sized hail was reported at Dryden.

Hail, Lee

When: July 27, 4:10 PM EST
Where: Lee County, 0.69 mi N of Pennington Gap
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Reported by: Emergency Manager
Coordinates: 36.760, -83.030

Four Lee County police cars were damaged, including two that had windows broken from golf ball to baseball sized hail. In addition, there was a large amount of debris on area roads.

Hail, Scott

When: July 27, 4:12 PM EST
Where: Scott County, 1.11 mi W of Duffield
Measured: 2.75 in hail
Reported by: State Official
Coordinates: 36.720, -82.800

Baseball sized hail was reported at Duffield.

Thunderstorm Wind, Scott

When: July 27, 4:12 PM EST
Where: Scott County, 1.11 mi W of Duffield
Measured: 50 kt (58 mph) estimated gust
Reported by: State Official
Coordinates: 36.720, -82.800

Several trees were reported down in Duffield.

Hail, Bristol (C)

When: July 27, 5:35 PM EST
Where: Bristol (C) County, 1.77 mi NE of Bristol
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Reported by: Trained Spotter
Coordinates: 36.620, -82.180

Golf ball sized hail was reported in the City of Bristol.

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.
Thunderstorm Wind: Winds from a thunderstorm of 50 knots (58 mph) or more, or lower winds that caused damage or casualties. Measured gusts are marked MG, estimated EG.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Virginia in 2014 Every state in 2014 This day in weather history Warnings in Virginia, July 2014

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 526518, 526519, 526520, 526521, 526522, 526523, 526527, 526525.