F1 tornado, Boonesville to Quinque, Virginia, May 19, 2000

1. F040 to 72 mph

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

2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F1

Date

May 19, 2000

Touchdown

2:34 PM EDT (18:34 UTC)

Path length

11.0 miles (17.7 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$3,000

Counties

Greene and Albemarle counties

Touchdown point

38.270, -78.650

Lift-off point

38.250, -78.430

Record number

822

Severe thunderstorms moved across Central Virginia during the afternoon of the 19th. These storms produced winds in excess of 55 MPH, large hail, and frequent lightning. In Orange County, silver dollar sized hail fell in Barboursville and dime sized hail fell on Hardwick Mountain. In Nelson County, trees were downed in the Gladstone area. Just west of Charlottesville, a tree was downed onto Old Ivy Road. The strongest storm produced an F1 tornado that uprooted and snapped several trees along an 11 mile path from extreme northern Albemarle County to southern Greene County. The tornado began just north of Loft Mountain, about 200 yards east of Skyline Drive. It moved eastward across County Line Mountain into Greene County, and crossed Route 601 at Muddy Run. The tornado damage path widened at this point from 30 yards to between 50 and 100 yards. The tornado continued east and traveled near the towns of Shady Grove and Dyke before finally dissipating a few miles east of Amicus. This storm also produced downburst winds to the south of the tornado's path that uprooted trees and downed power lines in southern Greene County. Trees were also downed just west of where the tornado formed just west of Skyline Drive in Rockingham County.

The tornado began just north of Loft Mountain, downed trees and moved into Greene County.

The tornado crossed into Greene County west of Dyke and dissipated just east of Amicus, downing several trees and power lines in its path.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 15:56 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Charlottesville (CHO), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 121 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:34 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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