Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2008
EF1 tornado, Big Stone Gap, Virginia, March 4, 2008
This EF1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Wise County on March 4, 2008, touching down at 4:55 PM EST and reaching 300 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $1.8 million 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
- March 4, 2008
- Touchdown
- 4:55 PM EST (21:55 UTC)
- Lifted
- 4:57 PM EST (21:57 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.0 miles (1.6 km)
- Path width
- 300 yards (274 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 2
- Property damage
- $1.8 million
- County
- Wise County
- Touchdown point
- 36.860, -82.780
- Lift-off point
- 36.860, -82.780
- Record number
- 0803041555-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Strong low pressure system moved northeast from Middle Tennessee into Southeast Kentucky with line of thunderstorms developing just ahead of front. Instability was low so convection was low topped. Most of the wind damage in this event was straight line in character. However, closer to surface low, the environment was more conducive to the development of rotating storms and an EF1 tornado touched down at Big Stone Gap in Southwest Virginia.
Tornado struck Big Stone Gap destroying six homes and producing major damage to fifteen homes and minor damage to twenty five homes. Two minor injuries were reported. Also, numerous large diameter trees were reported down.
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 19:29 UTC and running to 23:18 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Wind Advisory | MRX |
| 19:29 UTC | 23:18 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | MRX |
| 21:16 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | MRX |
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 19:57 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.
Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), 12:00Z
9.9 hours before the tornado, 272 km from the path. March 4, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 76 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -44 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 11 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 578 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 281 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 331 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.4 K/km
Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), 00:00Z
2.1 hours after it, 272 km from the path. March 5, 2008.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 49 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -58 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 207 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 776 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 44 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 157 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 165 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.0 K/km
The radar
The Jackson,KY radar (KJKL), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:57 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Big Stone Gap | Wise, VA | 6 HOMES DESTROYED. 15 HOMES WITH MAJOR DAMAGE. 25 HOMES WITH MINOR DAMAGE. |
| 21:55 UTC | TORNADO | Big Stone Gap | Wise, VA | *** 2 INJ *** 6 HOMES DESTROYED, 15 HOMES WITH MAJOR DAMAGE, 25 HOMES WITH MINOR DAMAGE. PATH LENGTH ONE MILE, 300 YARDS WIDE. RATED EF-1. 2 MINOR INJURIES, ZERO FATALITIES. NUMEROUS LARGE DIAMETER TREES DOWN. |
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 March 4, 2008
8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 4 | 12:49 AM CST | EF1 | Greene, AL | 5.6 | 300 | $150,000 | ||
| March 4 | 12:50 AM CST | EF1 | Tuscaloosa, AL | 0.8 | 200 | $50,000 | ||
| March 4 | 4:23 PM EST | EF1 | Newberry, SC | 2.7 | 60 | |||
| March 4 | 4:42 PM EST | EF0 | Lancaster, SC | 1.5 | 40 | |||
| March 4 | 4:54 PM EST | EF0 | Alamance, NC | 2.8 | 100 | $2.1 million | ||
| March 4 | 7:19 PM EST | EF0 | Aiken, SC | 20.1 | 60 | |||
| March 4 | 8:17 PM EST | EF0 | Davie, NC | 0.5 | 25 | $15,000 | ||
| March 4 | 8:50 PM EST | EF0 | Halifax, NC | 0.7 | 75 | $200,000 |
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.