Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2008
EF1 tornado, Mobjack to North, Virginia, April 28, 2008
From Mobjack to North, this EF1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Mathews County on April 28, 2008, touching down at 4:45 PM EDT and reaching 50 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF1
- Date
- April 28, 2008
- Touchdown
- 4:45 PM EDT (20:45 UTC)
- Lifted
- 4:47 PM EDT (20:47 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.5 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $50,000
- County
- Mathews County
- Touchdown point
- 37.386, -76.368
- Lift-off point
- 37.391, -76.364
- Record number
- 0804281445-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Severe thunderstorms in advance of a cold front produced numerous tornadoes across central and eastern Virginia.
A brief tornado touched down just southwest of Bohannon on North River Road near Cakes Creek. The tornado took the roof off a home, overturned a boat and a vehicle, and downed several trees.
The tornado tracked into Mathews county from Gloucester county. The tornado produced intermittent damage about 1 to 2 miles west of North. Several trees were downed or snapped off and part of a convenience store roof was blown off.
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 tornado watch, issued at 19:16 UTC and running to 22:59 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:16 UTC | 22:59 UTC | Tornado Watch | AKQ |
| 20:26 UTC | 21:30 UTC | Marine Warning | AKQ |
| 21:25 UTC | 22:30 UTC | Marine Warning | AKQ |
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 19:33 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
8.8 hours before the tornado, 104 km from the path. April 28, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 14 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -59 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 544 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 151 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 156 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
Wallops Is Stn, VA (KWAL), 00:00Z
3.2 hours after it, 104 km from the path. April 29, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -24221 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 10 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 579 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 47 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 37 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 72 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
The surface observations
Newport News (PHF), 31 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:54 UTC | 70 | 63 | 200° 13 kt | 18 | 1007.5 | |
| 19:54 UTC | 69 | 65 | 170° 11 kt | 16 | 1006.1 | -RA |
| 20:54 UTC | 69 | 66 | 190° 13 kt | 21 | 1005.8 | RA BR |
| 21:11 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 260° 13 kt | 24 | 1006.8 | +RA |
| 21:31 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 230° 6 kt | 1006.4 | RA BR | |
| 21:54 UTC | 64 | 60 | 250° 10 kt | 1006.8 | -RA | |
| 22:01 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 240° 11 kt | 1006.8 | -RA | |
| 22:10 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 240° 10 kt | 1007.1 | -RA | |
| 22:44 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 240° 6 kt | 1006.8 | -RA BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:45 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:13 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 S Claremont | Surry, VA | POTENTIAL TORNADO DAMAGE IN NORTHERN SURRY COUNTY. DOUBLE WIDE HOME DESTROYED. TREE DOWN. |
| 20:18 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 1 S Claremont | Surry, VA | DOUBLE WIDE HOME DESTROYED. NUMEROUS TREES DOWN OR SNAPPED OFF. DAMAGE WAS RATED AS EF-1. |
| 20:34 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Nw Jamestown | James City, VA | TREES DOWN...SOME STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO HOMES. POSSIBLE TORNADO. DAMAGE EXTENDED FROM BRICK BAT ROAD NORTHEAST TO NEAR RT 60. |
| 20:38 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 2 N Downtown Portsmouth | City of Norfolk, VA | MULTIPLE PUBLIC REPORTS OF FUNNEL CLOUD CROSSING HAMPTON ROAD AND THE MONITOR MERRIMACK BRIDGE. |
| 20:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | North | Mathews, VA | POSSIBLE TORNADO NEAR TOWN OF NORTH. TREES BLOWN DOWN. |
| 20:55 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 3 Sw Gloucester Courtho | Gloucester, VA | EF-0 DAMAGE ON HICKORY FORK ROAD IN THE TOWN OF BELROI. 2 LARGE TREES DOWN. |
| 21:12 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 1 Nw North | Mathews, VA | EF-0 DAMAGE ALONG RTE 657...PRIOR TO RTE 14. DAMAGE PATH ROUGHLY 1/4 MILE LONG AND 40 YARDS WIDE. NUMEROUS TREES DOWN. TORNADO DEVELOPED FROM THE SAME STORM THAT PRODUCED EF-0 DAMAGE IN GLOUCESTER COUNTY. |
| 21:12 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 1 W North | Mathews, VA | EF-0 DAMAGE ALONG RTE 657...PRIOR TO RTE 14. DAMAGE PATH ROUGHLY 1/4 MILE LONG AND 40 YARDS WIDE. NUMEROUS TREES DOWN. TORNADO DEVELOPED FROM THE SAME STORM THAT PRODUCED EF-0 DAMAGE IN GLOUCESTER COUNTY. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 28, 2008
15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 28 | 9:30 AM EDT | EF0 | Cleveland, NC | 0.1 | 40 | $20,000 | ||
| April 28 | 1:06 PM EDT | EF0 | Taylor, FL | 0.3 | 30 | $75,000 | ||
| April 28 | 1:10 PM EDT | EF1 | Halifax, VA | 0.9 | 240 | $500,000 | ||
| April 28 | 2:25 PM EDT | EF0 | Suwannee, FL | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| April 28 | 2:48 PM EDT | EF1 | Brunswick, VA | 16.0 | 250 | $705,000 | ||
| April 28 | 3:40 PM EDT | EF1 | City of Colonial Heights, VA | 1.0 | 80 | 21 | $2.0 million | |
| April 28 | 3:50 PM EDT | EF1 | Greensville, VA | 2.0 | 50 | $15,000 | ||
| April 28 | 4:05 PM EDT | EF3 | City of Suffolk, VA | 24.0 | 400 | 200 | $30 million | |
| April 28 | 4:10 PM EDT | EF0 | Southampton, VA | 0.3 | 30 | $5,000 | ||
| April 28 | 4:18 PM EDT | EF1 | Surry, VA | 0.3 | 30 | $74,000 | ||
| April 28 | 4:35 PM EDT | EF0 | James City, VA | 0.5 | 50 | $200,000 | ||
| April 28 | 4:40 PM EDT | EF1 | Isle of Wight, VA | 3.0 | 50 | $184,000 | ||
| April 28 | 4:55 PM EDT | EF0 | Gloucester, VA | 11.0 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| April 28 | 5:25 PM EDT | EF0 | Beaufort, NC | 0.2 | 20 | |||
| April 28 | 5:40 PM EDT | EF0 | Hyde, NC | 0.1 | 20 |
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.