Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2008
EF0 tornado, Winterpock, Virginia, June 3, 2008
This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Chesterfield County on June 3, 2008, touching down at 8:40 PM EDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $3,000 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- June 3, 2008
- Touchdown
- 8:40 PM EDT (00:40 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:42 PM EDT (00:42 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.4 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $3,000
- County
- Chesterfield County
- Touchdown point
- 37.405, -77.689
- Lift-off point
- 37.412, -77.683
- Record number
- 0806031840-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Isolated severe thunderstorm produced a brief tornado across portions of central Virginia.
Tornado briefly touched down just south of Midlothian. Trees were snapped off near the Hull Street police station, and trees were downed in the Woodlake Subdivision.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
15 minutes of warning. NWS AKQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:25 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:09 UTC | 22:42 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | AKQ |
| 00:25 UTC | 01:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | AKQ |
| 00:51 UTC | 01:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | AKQ |
| 01:15 UTC | 01:20 UTC | Tornado Warning | AKQ |
| 06:26 UTC | 09:47 UTC | Tornado Watch | 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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), 00:00Z
0.7 hours before the tornado, 162 km from the path. June 4, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1143 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -5 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1392 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 535 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 310 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 601 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.7
- Supercell composite
- 15.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.7 K/km
Roanoke, VA (KRNK), 12:00Z
11.3 hours after it, 162 km from the path. June 4, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1270 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -25 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 43 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 686 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 212 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 223 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 5.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
The surface observations
Chesterfield (FCI), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:54 UTC | 79 | 62 | 190° 11 kt | 17 | 1011.2 | |
| 23:54 UTC | 75 | 65 | 180° 7 kt | 1011.5 | -RA | |
| 00:37 UTC | 71.6 | 66.2 | 160° 8 kt | 1011.2 | -TSRA | |
| 00:54 UTC | 71 | 68 | 350° 7 kt | 1012.2 | TSRA BR | |
| 01:01 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 270° 9 kt | 1012.5 | +TSRA BR | |
| 01:16 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 0° 0 kt | 1012.5 | -TSRA BR | |
| 01:42 UTC | 71.6 | 66.2 | 170° 7 kt | 1011.5 | -RA | |
| 01:54 UTC | 71 | 67 | 160° 7 kt | 1011.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 76 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:38 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:40 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 5 S Midlothian | Chesterfield, VA | LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED A FUNNEL CLOUD NEAR ASHBROOK PARKWAY MOVING TOWARDS WOODLAKE SUBDIVISION. MULTIPLE TREES REPORTED DOWN IN WOODLAKE SUBDIVISION. TREES ALSO REPORTED DOWN AT HULL STREET POLICE STATION. |
| 00:40 UTC | TORNADO | 5 S Midlothian | Chesterfield, VA | TREES SNAPPED OFF NEAR THE HULL STREET POLICE STATION, AND TREES DOWN IN THE WOODLAKE SUBDIVISION. RATED AS AN EF-0. PATH WIDTH OF 20 YARDS AND A PATH LENGTH OF ONE QUARTER MILE. |
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 June 3, 2008
11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 3 | 7:54 AM CDT | EF0 | Marion, IL | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 3 | 11:10 AM EDT | EF1 | Greene, IN | 27.1 | 100 | 1 | $170,000 | |
| June 3 | 2:30 PM EDT | EF0 | Morgan, IN | 0.4 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| June 3 | 7:27 PM EDT | EF0 | City of Roanoke, VA | 1.6 | 60 | $350,000 | ||
| June 3 | 9:04 PM EDT | EF3 | Shelby, IN | 9.7 | 150 | 1 | 8 | $1.2 million |
| June 3 | 9:05 PM EDT | EF0 | Butler, OH | 0.3 | 25 | $30,000 | ||
| June 3 | 9:24 PM EDT | EF2 | Brown, IN | 10.6 | 150 | 4 | $23 million | |
| June 3 | 8:32 PM CDT | EF0 | Scott, IL | 6.7 | 75 | |||
| June 3 | 9:50 PM EDT | EF1 | Decatur, IN | 4.1 | 75 | $70,000 | ||
| June 3 | 12:25 AM EDT | EF0 | Clinton, OH | 0.2 | 25 | $15,000 | ||
| June 3 | 12:25 AM CDT | EF1 | Camden, MO | 6.0 | 100 | $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.