Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2004

F1 tornado, Cascade to Callands, Virginia, September 28, 2004

From Cascade to Callands, this F1 tornado ran 12.4 miles across Pittsylvania County on September 28, 2004, touching down at 4:58 AM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1.

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
September 28, 2004
Touchdown
4:58 AM EDT (08:58 UTC)
Path length
12.4 miles (20.0 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
County
Pittsylvania County
Touchdown point
36.630, -79.580
Lift-off point
36.750, -79.580
Record number
483

What the Weather Service recorded

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OFFICIALS IN BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA CONDUCTED A STORM SURVEY IN PITTSYLVANIA COUNTY OF VIRGINIA. THE DAMAGE OBSERVED FROM OAK RIDGE TO JUST SOUTH OF CALLANDS WAS DETERMINED TO BE THE RESULT OF A TORNADO. THE DAMAGE PATH WAS OBSERVED TO BE INTERMITTENT OVER MUCH OF THIS NEARLY 12 MILE STRETCH. THE LONGEST CONTINUOUS DAMAGE WAS 2 3/4 MILES ON THE NORTHERN END OF THE PATH. THE PATH WIDTH RANGED FROM 75 TO 150 YARDS WITHIN THE DAMAGE AREA. MOST OF THE OBSERVED DAMAGE WAS CONSISTENT WITH A FUJITA SCALE (F-SCALE) RATING OF F0. THERE WERE SOME BRIEF AREAS OF F1 DAMAGE OVER THE LAST 2 3/4 MILES OF OF THE TORNADOES PATH.

F0 with brief areas of F1 tornado

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

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
09:24 UTC10:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK

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. The outlook in force was issued at 05:19 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.

Roanoke, VA (KRNK), 00:00Z

9.0 hours before the tornado, 57 km from the path. September 28, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Roanoke, VA at 00:00Z on 2004-09-28Temperature 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 -48442, lifted condensation level 521 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, Roanoke, VA at 00:00Z on 2004-09-28The 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 122 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-48442 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
521 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
121 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Roanoke, VA (KRNK), 12:00Z

3.0 hours after it, 57 km from the path. September 28, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Roanoke, VA at 12:00Z on 2004-09-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 78 joules per kilogram, CIN -40, lifted condensation level 532 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, Roanoke, VA at 12:00Z on 2004-09-28The 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 135 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 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
78 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-40 J/kg
Surface CAPE
36 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
532 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
135 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
208 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Danville Regional (DAN), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
07:56 UTC737190° 8 kt1007.1-RA BR
08:10 UTC73.471.690° 10 kt1006.8RA BR
08:19 UTC73.471.690° 8 kt1006.8RA BR
08:27 UTC73.471.690° 10 kt1006.4RA BR
08:31 UTC73.471.690° 10 kt1006.1VCTS RA BR
08:56 UTC7371100° 10 kt151005.8-TSRA BR
09:06 UTC73.471.690° 7 kt151005.4+RA BR
09:17 UTC73.471.6140° 7 kt151005.8-RA BR
09:34 UTC73.471.6110° 4 kt201005.8
09:56 UTC7372100° 5 kt1005.4BR
10:09 UTC73.471.690° 6 kt1005.1BR
10:12 UTC73.471.690° 5 kt1005.1BR
10:56 UTC7371110° 7 kt1004.1BR

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

The radar

The Roanoke radar (KFCX), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:57 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.

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 September 28, 2004

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 283:30 PM EDTF0Camden, NJ2.517$100,000
September 284:00 PM EDTF0Calvert, MD0.350$40,000
September 284:14 PM EDTF2New Castle, DE5.0150$1.0 million

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.