Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2005

F0 tornado, Coatesville, Virginia, January 14, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Hanover County on January 14, 2005, touching down at 5:30 AM EST and reaching 30 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
January 14, 2005
Touchdown
5:30 AM EST (10:30 UTC)
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Hanover County
Touchdown point
37.850, -77.580
Lift-off point
37.850, -77.580
Record number
624

What the Weather Service recorded

F0 tornado downed several trees and sheared off others. Minor damage to barn.

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

The warnings

12 minutes of warning. NWS AKQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 10:18 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 10:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:18 UTC10:45 UTCTornado WarningAKQ

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 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), 00:00Z

10.5 hours before the tornado, 123 km from the path. January 14, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 00:00Z on 2005-01-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 17 joules per kilogram, CIN -21, lifted condensation level 975 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 2005-01-14The 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 304 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 56 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-21 J/kg
Surface CAPE
17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
975 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
56 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
304 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
380 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

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

1.5 hours after it, 123 km from the path. January 14, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 2005-01-14Temperature 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 -73784, lifted condensation level 672 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, Washington/Dulle, VA at 12:00Z on 2005-01-14The 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 -429 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 78 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
-73784 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
672 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
78 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-429 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-180 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Richmond (Asos) (OFP), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
08:54 UTC7162180° 15 kt271009.1
09:54 UTC6863180° 13 kt211008.5+RA
10:54 UTC6462300° 14 kt241009.8+RA BR
10:59 UTC60.859310° 17 kt221009.8+RA FG
11:01 UTC60.857.2320° 12 kt221009.8+RA FG
11:12 UTC5957.2310° 7 kt191010.8+RA BR
11:22 UTC5957.2320° 14 kt211011.2+RA BR
11:29 UTC5955.4330° 9 kt211011.5+RA BR
11:34 UTC57.255.4320° 7 kt1011.5+RA BR
11:54 UTC5857300° 6 kt1012.2+RA BR
12:00 UTC57.255.4320° 5 kt1011.9+RA BR
12:19 UTC57.255.4290° 8 kt1013.2+RA BR

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

The radar

The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 109 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:28 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 2005 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of January 14, 2005

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 141:45 AM ESTF2Rowan, NC0.3100$500,000
January 144:45 AM ESTF0Orange, NC0.350
January 145:55 AM ESTF1Mecklenburg, VA0.550$10,000
January 147:25 AM ESTF1Richmond, VA7.050$10,000
January 147:45 AM ESTF1Northumberland, VA1.060$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.