Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2007

EF0 tornado, Signpine to Ark, Virginia, April 27, 2007

From Signpine to Ark, this EF0 tornado ran 5.1 miles across Gloucester County on April 27, 2007, touching down at 12:30 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
April 27, 2007
Touchdown
12:30 PM EDT (16:30 UTC)
Lifted
12:35 PM EDT (16:35 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
5.1 miles (8.3 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Gloucester County
Touchdown point
37.440, -76.670
Lift-off point
37.460, -76.580
Record number
0704271030-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms developed in an unstable airmass and produced scattered reports of large hail and wind damage. Additionally, a tornado occurred in Gloucester county.

Damage began near Starvation Road and ended near Willis Road near Petsworth Elementary School. Multiple trees sheared off or blown over. Structural damage included one large tree on a house and roofs blown off horse stables.

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 16:03 UTC and running to 20:31 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
16:03 UTC20:31 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchAKQ
16:33 UTC17:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAKQ
22:51 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAKQ
23:32 UTC23:59 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 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 16:31 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.

Wallops Is Stn, VA (KWAL), 12:00Z

4.5 hours before the tornado, 120 km from the path. April 27, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 12:00Z on 2007-04-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 130 joules per kilogram, CIN -35, lifted condensation level 479 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, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 12:00Z on 2007-04-27The 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 223 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
130 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-35 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
479 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
223 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
224 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
3.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Wallops Is Stn, VA (KWAL), 00:00Z

7.5 hours after it, 120 km from the path. April 28, 2007.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 00:00Z on 2007-04-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 141 joules per kilogram, CIN -92, lifted condensation level 606 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, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 00:00Z on 2007-04-28The 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 78 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
141 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-92 J/kg
Surface CAPE
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
606 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
134 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:28 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
15:35 UTCHAIL 0.75HopewellCity of Hopewell, VA
15:38 UTCHAIL 0.88HopewellCity of Hopewell, VANICKEL HAIL AT FORT LEE
15:47 UTCTSTM WND DMGCharles CityCharles City, VAMULTIPLE TREES DOWN ALONG ROUTE 5 IN CHARLES CITY.
16:30 UTCTORNADOArkGloucester, VATIME APPROXIMATE. DAMAGE DETERMINED TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH EF0 TORNADO. DAMAGE BEGAN NEAR STARVATION ROAD AND ENDED NEAR WILLIS ROAD NEAR PETSWORTH ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. MULTIPLE TREES SHEARED OFF OR BLOWN OVER. DAMAGE INCLU

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2007 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 27, 2007

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 276:20 PM CDTEF0Bates, MO1.125
April 276:30 PM CDTEF0Vernon, MO12.925$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.