Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2010
EF0 tornado, Alton, Virginia, March 28, 2010
This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Halifax County on March 28, 2010, touching down at 10:02 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $15,000 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
- March 28, 2010
- Touchdown
- 10:02 PM EDT (02:02 UTC)
- Lifted
- 10:03 PM EDT (02:03 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.2 miles (0.4 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $15,000
- County
- Halifax County
- Touchdown point
- 36.578, -79.003
- Lift-off point
- 36.579, -78.999
- Record number
- 1003282002-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Severe thunderstorms developed ahead of a low pressure system which produced an EF-0 tornado in Alton, VA. Later on the 28th, heavy rains caused isolated flash flooding in Pittsylvania and Halifax counties.
An EF-0 tornado touched down briefly just off of Blane Road between Alton and Turbeville. Several old farm buildings and out buildings had minor roof and siding damage, and at least one large cedar tree was snapped off a few feet above the ground. Damage was scattered in this short one quarter mile path length.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
4 minutes of warning. NWS RNK issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:58 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:45 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:54 UTC and running to 03:20 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:00 UTC | 10:00 UTC | Flood Watch | RNK |
| 23:54 UTC | 03:20 UTC | Tornado Watch | RNK |
| 01:49 UTC | 07:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | RNK |
| 01:58 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | RNK |
| 02:29 UTC | 02:41 UTC | Tornado Warning | RNK |
| 02:52 UTC | 03:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | RNK |
| 03:20 UTC | 05:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | RNK |
| 07:41 UTC | 15:30 UTC | Flood Warning | RNK |
| 08:14 UTC | 00:07 UTC | Flood Warning | RNK |
| 13:07 UTC | 02:33 UTC | Flood Warning | RNK |
| 15:31 UTC | 08:54 UTC | Flood Warning | RNK |
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 00:58 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
2.0 hours before the tornado, 82 km from the path. March 29, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -91663 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 443 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 48 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 51 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 169 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 182 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
Roanoke, VA (KRNK), 12:00Z
10.0 hours after it, 82 km from the path. March 29, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -93684 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 688 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 68 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 6 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -56 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -23 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.8 K/km
The radar
The Raleigh/Durham radar (KRAX), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:03 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:02 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Sse Turbeville | Halifax, VA | AN EF-0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST OFF BLANE ROAD, NEAR ALTON,VA. ONE MOBILE HOME WAS DESTROYED, AND SEVERAL OLD FARM BUILDINGS AND OUTBUILDINGS HAD MINOR ROOF DAMAGE. |
| 02:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Se Turbeville | Halifax, VA | UNOCCUPIED TRAILER HOME TURNED OVER AND DESTROYED. |
| 02:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Turbeville | Halifax, VA | PUBLIC REPORT OF TREE DAMAGE IN YARD AND LOUD LOCOMOTIVE SOUND FROM POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 02:15 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 2 S Danville City | Pittsylvania, VA | LUNA LAKE ROAD IS UNDER WATER. |
| 02:20 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | South Boston | Halifax, VA | INTERSECTION OF RT 58 AND 501 UNDER WATER. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of March 28, 2010
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 28 | 5:06 PM EDT | EF1 | Edgefield, SC | 13.3 | 110 | |||
| March 28 | 5:37 PM EDT | EF1 | Gaston, NC | 0.1 | 100 | $1.1 million | ||
| March 28 | 6:00 PM EDT | EF0 | Brevard, FL | 2.3 | 200 | $5,000 | ||
| March 28 | 6:46 PM EDT | EF2 | Rowan, NC | 5.0 | 200 | 5 | $1.8 million | |
| March 28 | 7:15 PM EDT | EF1 | Davidson, NC | 0.8 | 50 | $750,000 | ||
| March 28 | 7:30 PM EDT | EF3 | Guilford, NC | 3.5 | 250 | $10 million | ||
| March 28 | 10:24 PM EDT | EF2 | Edgefield, SC | 2.4 | 440 | $250,000 | ||
| March 28 | 11:25 PM EDT | EF2 | Lexington, SC | 5.0 | 440 | 1 | $1.0 million | |
| March 28 | 11:55 PM EDT | EF1 | Person, NC | 4.0 | 75 | $250,000 | ||
| March 28 | 12:03 AM EDT | EF0 | Fairfield, SC | 2.0 | 60 |
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.