Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2004

F1 tornado, Wolftown to Madison, Virginia, May 2, 2004

From Wolftown to Madison, this F1 tornado ran 4.3 miles across Madison County on May 2, 2004, touching down at 7:27 PM EDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
May 2, 2004
Touchdown
7:27 PM EDT (23:27 UTC)
Path length
4.3 miles (6.9 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Madison County
Touchdown point
38.330, -78.320
Lift-off point
38.420, -78.300
Record number
114

What the Weather Service recorded

Numerous trees uprooted. Storage buildings damaged.

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

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS LWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:23 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:09 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX
23:23 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningLWX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:35 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 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.

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 12:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 102 km from the path. May 2, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 2004-05-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 44 joules per kilogram, CIN -24, lifted condensation level 486 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, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 2004-05-02The 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 113 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 21 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
44 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-24 J/kg
Surface CAPE
55 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
486 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
113 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
134 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Washington/Dulle, VA (KIAD), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 102 km from the path. May 3, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 2004-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 401 joules per kilogram, CIN -10, lifted condensation level 1159 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, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 2004-05-03The 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 195 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 43 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
401 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-10 J/kg
Surface CAPE
594 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1159 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
195 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
213 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
2.2
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:50 UTCTSTM WND DMGElktonRockingham, VATREES DOWNED IN EASTERN ROCKINGHAM COUNTY.
22:53 UTCTSTM WND DMGHarrisonburgCity of Harrisonbu, VAPOWER POLES AND POWERLINES DOWNED.
23:00 UTCTSTM WND DMGSperryvilleRappahannock, VATREES AND LARGE BRANCHES DOWNED.
23:11 UTCTSTM WND DMGFree UnionAlbemarle, VAWIDESPREAD TREES DOWN
23:20 UTCTSTM WND DMGCrozetAlbemarle, VATREES AND POWERLINES DOWNED NEAR EARLESVILLE AND CROZET.
23:23 UTCTSTM WND DMGRuckersvilleGreene, VATREES AND POWERLINE DOWNED IN RUCKERSVILLE.
23:24 UTCTSTM WND DMGBarboursvilleOrange, VATREES DOWN IN WESTERN ORANGE COUNTY.
23:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGMadisonMadison, VATREES DOWN.
23:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGStanardsvilleGreene, VANUMEROUS TREES DOWNED.
23:40 UTCTSTM WND DMGRevaCulpeper, VADOWNED TREES ALONG SPERRYVILLE PIKE AND ALONG ROUTE 522 WHICH WAS CLOSED DUE TO DOWNED TREES.
23:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 E WarrentonFauquier, VATREES DOWNED ON WATERLOO ST AT DUMFRIES RD.
23:55 UTCTSTM WND DMGAmissvilleRappahannock, VATREES AND LARGE BRANCHES DOWNED.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 2, 2004

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 211:30 AM EDTF1Clay, GA8.01006$550,000
May 23:55 PM CDTF0Schuyler, IL0.110
May 25:15 PM EDTF1Harnett, NC2.3300
May 210:30 PM EDTF1King and Queen, VA1.0100$30,000

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.