EF0 tornado, Middletown, Virginia, April 20, 2008

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

April 20, 2008

Touchdown

10:02 PM EDT (02:02 UTC)

Lifted

10:04 PM EDT (02:04 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

County

Frederick County

Touchdown point

39.041, -78.285

Lift-off point

39.046, -78.282

Record number

0804202002-01

A deep low pressure system moving east across the Great Lakes pushed a strong cold front across the region on late April 20th into early April 21st. Numerous strong to severe thunderstorms developed during the afternoon and evening hours across the region and continued into the following morning. High moisture content and training storms lead to flooding across potions of the region with several road closures due to high water. Several storms produced damaging winds that downed trees and power lines. There was also a confirmed tornado in Frederick County.

An NWS survey team confirmed a tornado in Middletown. The tornado touched down on the grounds of an apple farm off Chapel Road. The team found damage to farm outbuildings and a large barn, including one farm outbuilding that was completely uplifted and destroyed with the remains deposited along a half mile path. Apple trees were uprooted, along with two pine trees and one hardwood tree snapped at the trunk approximately 15 feet from the ground. The metal roof of a large barn and the metal roof of a small outbuilding were peeled back in opposite directions despite being along the same damage path. Several ten pound weights were picked up and deposited 40 yards away from where they were originally located in the outbuilding that was completely uplifted. An oak measuring 6 feet in diameter and set 3 feet into the ground served as a structural foundation for the destroyed outbuilding was completely and cleanly removed from the ground and deposited 400 yards away.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:59 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 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.

Winchester Regional (OKV), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 69 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:02 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.