Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2014
EF0 tornado, Prince George, Virginia, May 22, 2014
This EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Prince George County on May 22, 2014, touching down at 5:45 PM EDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $25,000 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
- May 22, 2014
- Touchdown
- 5:45 PM EDT (21:45 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:46 PM EDT (21:46 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.7 miles (1.1 km)
- Path width
- 25 yards (23 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $25,000
- County
- Prince George County
- Touchdown point
- 37.260, -77.240
- Lift-off point
- 37.250, -77.240
- Record number
- 1405221545-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Scattered severe thunderstorms in advance of a cold front produced damaging winds, large hail, and three tornadoes across portions of central and eastern Virginia.
An EF0 tornado briefly touched down northeast of Prince George on Kurnas Lane. The tornado destroyed a shed, snapped trees, and caused minor damage to a home.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
16 minutes of warning. NWS AKQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:29 UTC, 16 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:27 UTC and running to 01:53 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21:21 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | AKQ |
| 21:27 UTC | 01:53 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | AKQ |
| 21:29 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | AKQ |
| 21:59 UTC | 22:16 UTC | Tornado Warning | 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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
9.8 hours before the tornado, 179 km from the path. May 22, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 413 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -101 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1075 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 37 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -17 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 32 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
Wallops Is Stn, VA (KWAL), 00:00Z
2.2 hours after it, 179 km from the path. May 23, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 243 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -78 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1514 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1543 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 58 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 27 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 159 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- -0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.7 K/km
The radar
The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 37 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:42 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:43 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Wyndham | Henrico, VA | SEVERAL TREES DOWNED IN WYNDHAM ALONG WITH HAIL UP TO ONE INCH. |
| 20:43 UTC | HAIL 1 | Wyndham | Henrico, VA | SEVERAL TREES DOWNED IN WYNDHAM ALONG WITH HAIL UP TO ONE INCH. |
| 20:45 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Sse English Hills | Henrico, VA | WINDS OVER 50 MPH |
| 20:50 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Glen Allen | Henrico, VA | HAIL 1 NE OF COX AND BROAD |
| 20:50 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Glen Allen | Henrico, VA | |
| 20:54 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | 1 Nw Sweet Briar Park | Henrico, VA | |
| 20:54 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Laurel | Henrico, VA | |
| 20:55 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Varina Farm | Henrico, VA | GOLF BALL HAIL REPORTED IN INNSBROOKE |
| 20:56 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Downtown Richmond | City of Richmond, VA | FUNNEL CLOUD SPOTTED VICINITY OF BOULEVARD AND BROAD |
| 20:56 UTC | TSTM WND GST 50 | 1 Sse English Hills | Henrico, VA | |
| 20:56 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 1 Sse English Hills | Henrico, VA | |
| 20:56 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Downtown Richmond | City of Richmond, VA | HAIL VICINITY OF BOULEVARD AND BROAD |
| 20:57 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Dumbarton | Henrico, VA | |
| 20:58 UTC | WALL CLOUD | Midlothian | Chesterfield, VA | WALL CLOUD AND PSBL FUNNEL NEAR ROBIOUS HALL SHOPPING CENTER |
| 21:00 UTC | HAIL 1 | Dumbarton | Henrico, VA | |
| 21:03 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 W Chestnut Hill | City of Richmond, VA | 8 LARGE PANE WINDOWS WERE BLOWN OUT OF THE NAPA STORE IN THE 1600 BLOCK OF CHAMBERLAYNE AVE. |
| 21:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Downtown Richmond | City of Richmond, VA | EXXON SERVICE STATION LOST PART OF CANOPY NEAR BROAD AND 17TH |
| 21:05 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Ese Westhampton | Henrico, VA | |
| 21:07 UTC | HAIL 1 | Downtown Richmond | City of Richmond, VA | HAIL NEAR MAIN AND BELVIDERE |
| 21:10 UTC | HAIL 1 | Downtown Richmond | City of Richmond, VA | DIME TO QUARTER SIZE HAIL NEAR CHAMBERLAYNE AVE |
| 21:23 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Sse English Hills | Henrico, VA | SOME ROTATION WITHIN THE CLOUDS |
| 21:35 UTC | HAIL 1 | Enon | Chesterfield, VA | WIND GUSTS UP TO 45 TO 50 MPH WITH BROAD ROTATION. |
| 21:37 UTC | HAIL 1 | Screamersville | Chesterfield, VA | |
| 21:39 UTC | WALL CLOUD | Colonial Heights | City of Colonial H, VA | WALL CLOUD REPORTED NEAR SOUTHPARK MALL. |
| 21:40 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Walthall | Chesterfield, VA | FUNNEL CLOUD REPORTED NEAR EXIT 58 AND INTERSTATE 95. |
| 21:42 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ene Arlington | City of Hopewell, VA | LARGE POWER POLE SNAPPED OFF. |
| 21:42 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Hopewell | City of Hopewell, VA | PART OF ROOF BLOWN OFF APARTMENT COMPLEX. COUPLE OF TREES DOWN. |
| 21:44 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Nne Birchett Estate | Prince George, VA | COUPLE OF TREES AND NUMEROUS LIMBS BLOWN DOWN. |
| 21:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ese Manchester Mill | Prince George, VA | STEEL OUTBUILDING PICKED UP DAMAGING TOP OF HOUSE...COUPLE OF SMALL TREES DOWN. |
| 21:45 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ese Manchester Mill | Prince George, VA | POSSIBLE BRIEF TORNADO....STEEL BUILDING PICKED UP DAMAGING TOP OF HOUSE |
| 21:45 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ese Manchester Mill | Prince George, VA | POSSIBLE BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN |
| 21:45 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ese Manchester Mill | Prince George, VA | STEEL OUTBUILDING PICKED UP DAMAGING TOP OF HOUSE...COUPLE OF SMALL TREES DOWN. |
| 21:51 UTC | HAIL 1 | Jordans Point | Prince George, VA | QUARTER SIZE HAIL RTE 10 NEAR JORDANS POINT |
| 21:54 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 1 Ese Richmond | City of Richmond, VA | I 95 AT EXIT 76 DOWN TO ONE LANE DUE TO FLOODING |
| 21:58 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 2 Wnw Disputanta | Prince George, VA | |
| 22:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Stevensville | King And Queen, VA | TWO TREES DOWN ON A ROAD |
| 22:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Waverly | Sussex, VA | SEVERAL TREES DOWNED ALONG 460 NORTH OF WAVERLY. |
| 22:20 UTC | TORNADO | Waverly | Sussex, VA | SEVERAL TREES DOWNED ALONG 460 NORTH OF WAVERLY. |
| 22:26 UTC | HAIL 1 | Nw Wakefield | Sussex, VA | |
| 23:48 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 N Newville | Prince George, VA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 22, 2014
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.