Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2004

F0 tornado, Orange County, Virginia, September 8, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Orange County on September 8, 2004, touching down at 6:40 PM EDT and reaching 50 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 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
September 8, 2004
Touchdown
6:40 PM EDT (22:40 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Orange County
Touchdown point
38.230, -78.180
Lift-off point
38.230, -78.180
Record number
1749

The warnings

27 minutes of warning. NWS LWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:13 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:13 UTC23:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:46 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

10.7 hours before the tornado, 105 km from the path. September 8, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 2004-09-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 188 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 490 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 2004-09-08The 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 57 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
188 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
219 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
490 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
106 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.3 hours after it, 105 km from the path. September 9, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 2004-09-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 622 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 605 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 2004-09-09The 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 311 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
622 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1030 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
605 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
311 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
383 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
6.9
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:41 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 8, 2004

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 84:55 AM EDTF0Hoke, NC0.550
September 88:30 AM EDTF0Northampton, NC3.0100$10,000
September 811:25 AM EDTF0Moore, NC0.525
September 811:30 AM EDTF0Lee, NC0.550
September 812:45 PM EDTF0Orange, NC0.525
September 812:58 PM EDTF1Charles, MD5.0150$70,000
September 81:20 PM EDTF0Harnett, NC0.525
September 82:05 PM EDTF0King William, VA1.0100$10,000
September 82:20 PM EDTF2Fauquier, VA1.5200$500,000
September 82:30 PM EDTF1Fauquier, VA0.8100$10,000
September 82:57 PM EDTF1Culpeper, VA0.3100$50,000
September 83:25 PM EDTF1Caroline, VA17.8300$40,000
September 84:18 PM EDTF0Stafford, VA5.5150$300,000
September 84:30 PM EDTF0Buckingham, VA0.833
September 85:05 PM EDTF0Fauquier, VA0.3100$2,000
September 85:30 PM EDTF0Clarke, VA0.350$1,000
September 85:40 PM EDTF0Amelia, VA0.550$2,000
September 85:40 PM EDTF0Fluvanna, VA1.0100$10,000
September 87:15 PM EDTF0Chesterfield, VA0.550$2,000
September 88:20 PM EDTF0City of Richmond, VA0.750$10,000

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.