Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2012

EF0 tornado, Motorun, Virginia, February 24, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Mathews County on February 24, 2012, touching down at 6:25 PM EST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
February 24, 2012
Touchdown
6:25 PM EST (23:25 UTC)
Lifted
6:30 PM EST (23:30 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.8 miles (1.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Mathews County
Touchdown point
37.334, -76.301
Lift-off point
37.336, -76.288
Record number
1202241725-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered severe thunderstorms in advance of a cold front produced damaging winds, large hail and one tornado across portions of central and eastern Virginia.

National Weather Service Storm Survey determined the damage was consistent with an EF0 tornado. The tornado began at White Cemetery and moved east northeast by the Davis Road Marina and ended on Route 14 just north of Bavon. Several trees were downed and a number of trees had branches and limbs broken off. Several buildings had minor roof damage and an older building by the marina had damage to a wall.

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 18:20 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:20 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WatchAKQ

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.10 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.

Wallops Is Stn, VA (KWAL), 12:00Z

11.4 hours before the tornado, 103 km from the path. February 24, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 12:00Z on 2012-02-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 50 joules per kilogram, CIN -208, lifted condensation level 884 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 12:00Z on 2012-02-24The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 336 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 73 knots.1939587897117136156Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
50 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-208 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
884 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
73 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
336 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
348 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Wallops Is Stn, VA (KWAL), 00:00Z

0.6 hours after it, 103 km from the path. February 25, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 00:00Z on 2012-02-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 344 joules per kilogram, CIN -25, lifted condensation level 576 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 00:00Z on 2012-02-25The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 310 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
344 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-25 J/kg
Surface CAPE
233 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
576 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
310 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
258 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.9
0-3 km lapse rate
7.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:24 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
23:25 UTCTSTM WND DMGBavonMathews, VASEVERAL REPORTS OF WIND DAMAGE IN THE THE DAVIS CREEK AND MARINA AREA.
23:25 UTCTORNADOBavonMathews, VAEF0 TORNADO DAMAGED SEVERAL BUILDINGS AND DOWNED TREES.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 24, 2012

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 241:07 PM ESTEF2Lexington, SC9.2150$300,000
February 241:42 PM ESTEF0Colquitt, GA3.850$20,000
February 241:51 PM ESTEF0Sumter, SC4.850$10,000
February 245:09 PM ESTEF1Colleton, SC2.0150$125,000

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.