Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2006

F0 tornado, Climax, Virginia, May 26, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Pittsylvania County on May 26, 2006, touching down at 5:15 PM EDT and reaching 25 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
May 26, 2006
Touchdown
5:15 PM EDT (21:15 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Pittsylvania County
Touchdown point
36.850, -79.530
Lift-off point
36.850, -79.530
Record number
571

What the Weather Service recorded

Isolated thunderstorms during the afternoon of the 26th brought a brief tornado, straight line winds, and up to golfball sized hail to portions of southwest Virginia.In Pittsylvania county, an F0 tornado briefly touched down 4 miles southwest of Climax, uprooting numerous shallow rooted trees.Also in Pittsylvania county, straight line winds downed numerous large trees, damaged 25 homes and a church, and destroyed a wood stable, from 4 miles southwest of Climax, near Burnt Chimney, to one mile southwest of Climax, near Green Pond. This storm also produced golfball sized hail.Trees were also downed in Climax and 5 miles west of Chatham in Pittsylvania county.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:44 UTC and running to 01:20 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:24 UTC21:04 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNK
20:44 UTC01:20 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchRNK
21:06 UTC22:00 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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), 12:00Z

9.3 hours before the tornado, 39 km from the path. May 26, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Roanoke, VA at 12:00Z on 2006-05-26Temperature 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 -70131, lifted condensation level 1059 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 12:00Z on 2006-05-26The 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 25 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-70131 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1059 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
25 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Roanoke, VA (KRNK), 00:00Z

2.7 hours after it, 39 km from the path. May 27, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Roanoke, VA at 00:00Z on 2006-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 405 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 816 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 00:00Z on 2006-05-27The 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 233 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
405 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
798 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
816 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
233 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
237 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
3.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Roanoke radar (KFCX), 69 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:15 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:47 UTCHAIL 0.75RinggoldPittsylvania, VA
21:02 UTCHAIL 0.758 W TurbevilleHalifax, VA
21:06 UTCHAIL 0.755 Sw PenhookFranklin, VATHREE QUARTER INCH HAIL REPORTED AT THE FORREST HILL CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
21:15 UTCTORNADO4 Sw ClimaxPittsylvania, VAA BRIEF F0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN 4 MILES SOUTHEAST OF MUSEVILLE OFF TOMAHAWK MILL ROAD. THE TORNADO PATH WAS ESTIMATED TO BE 100 YARDS LONG AND 25 YARD WIDE.
21:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGClimaxPittsylvania, VANUMEROUS TREES DOWN
21:25 UTCHAIL 0.75ChathamPittsylvania, VAALSO 4 INCH TREE LIMBS DOWN.
21:37 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Sw ClimaxPittsylvania, VAHOMES DAMAGED AND NUMEROUS TREES DOWN ON HIGHWAY 750 NORTH OF HIGHWAY 57.
21:37 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 W ChathamPittsylvania, VATREES DOWN.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 26, 2006

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 2612:30 PM CDTF0Barry, MO1.0100
May 266:14 PM EDTF1Gaston, NC2.240$10,000
May 265:55 PM CDTF0Thomas, KS0.310

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.