Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2012

EF0 tornado, Daugherty, Virginia, July 14, 2012

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Accomack County on July 14, 2012, touching down at 1:08 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.

  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
July 14, 2012
Touchdown
1:08 PM EDT (17:08 UTC)
Lifted
1:13 PM EDT (17:13 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (0.9 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$15,000
County
Accomack County
Touchdown point
37.686, -75.667
Lift-off point
37.679, -75.673
Record number
1207141108-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Isolated severe thunderstorm along a weak frontal boundary produced a tornado across portions of the Virginia Eastern Shore.

A slow moving tornado made a short narrow path through rural portions of Accomack county just east of Onley. The tornado first touched down in a small residential development just southwest of the intersection of Custis Neck Road and Drummondtown Road. Numerous trees were damaged or brought down by the tornado with one tree falling on an unoccupied vehicle. The tornado then continued slowly southwest through a wooded area with the last visible tree damage seen just southwest of Accomack Elementary School.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:12 UTC18:00 UTCTornado WarningAKQ
17:24 UTC18:00 UTCTornado WarningAKQ
18:40 UTC20:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningAKQ

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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

5.1 hours before the tornado, 36 km from the path. July 14, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 12:00Z on 2012-07-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 650 joules per kilogram, CIN -19, lifted condensation level 661 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 2012-07-14The 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 28 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 knots.1939Sfc1 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
650 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-19 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
661 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
28 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
53 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.9 hours after it, 36 km from the path. July 15, 2012.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Wallops Is Stn, VA at 00:00Z on 2012-07-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 953 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 652 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 2012-07-15The 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 18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.1939Sfc1 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
953 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2322 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
652 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Melfa/Accomack Airport (MFV), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
15:15 UTC82.473.4220° 5 kt1023
15:35 UTC84.273.40° 0 kt1023.4TS
15:55 UTC84.273.4250° 6 kt1023.4TS
16:15 UTC84.273.4230° 3 kt1023VCTS
16:35 UTC84.273.4250° 5 kt1023VCTS
16:55 UTC84.273.480° 3 kt1022.7VCTS
17:15 UTC82.473.450° 6 kt1023TS
17:35 UTC80.671.650° 4 kt1022.7-RA
17:55 UTC7771.6 1022.7
18:15 UTC 1023.4
18:35 UTC 1023
18:55 UTC 1023

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Dover AFB radar (KDOX), 129 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:09 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
17:10 UTCTORNADOChase CrossingAccomack, VATORNADO NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF CUSTIS NECK ROAD AND DRUMMANDTOWN RD. NUMEROUS TREES UPROOTED AND SOME BUILDING DAMAGED. FIRE AND EMS RESPONDING.
19:10 UTCFLASH FLOODBobtownAccomack, VAPUNGOTEAGUE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL FLOODED
19:10 UTCFLASH FLOODPungoteagueAccomack, VABOBTOWN ROAD FLOODED
19:15 UTCFLASH FLOOD1 Se LocustvilleAccomack, VAPORTION OF HOLLIES CHURCH ROAD WASHED OUT

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

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.