Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 1962

F0 tornado, Accomack County, Virginia, May 31, 1962

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Accomack County on May 31, 1962, touching down at 12:45 PM GMT-4 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50 to $500 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
May 31, 1962
Touchdown
12:45 PM GMT-4 (16:45 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50 to $500
County
Accomack County
Touchdown point
37.850, -75.500
Record number
303

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Norfolk Regional, VA (KORF), 12:00Z

4.8 hours before the tornado, 122 km from the path. May 31, 1962.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norfolk Regional, VA at 12:00Z on 1962-05-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -4945, lifted condensation level 940 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Norfolk Regional, VA at 12:00Z on 1962-05-31The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 39 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4945 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
940 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
49 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Norfolk Regional, VA (KORF), 00:00Z

7.2 hours after it, 122 km from the path. June 1, 1962.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norfolk Regional, VA at 00:00Z on 1962-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1439 joules per kilogram, CIN -20, lifted condensation level 1167 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Norfolk Regional, VA at 00:00Z on 1962-06-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 59 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1439 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-20 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2191 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1167 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
59 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
60 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1962 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 31, 1962

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 3112:45 PM GMT-5F2Brown, KS6.913$50 to $500
May 312:30 PM GMT-5F1Doniphan, KS to MO0.110
May 312:45 PM GMT-5F0Andrew, MO0.110under $50
May 312:45 PM GMT-5F0Andrew, MO0.110under $50
May 312:45 PM GMT-5F1Brown, KS0.110
May 312:45 PM GMT-5F1Brown, KS0.110
May 315:00 PM GMT-5F0Pawnee, KS0.110
May 315:00 PM GMT-5F0Pawnee, KS0.110
May 319:10 PM GMT-5F1Cottle, TX2.033
May 3110:10 PM GMT-5F0Reagan, TX0.110
May 3111:00 PM GMT-5F3Callahan, TX2.0332
May 3111:30 PM GMT-5F2Fisher, TX1.020

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.