Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2018

EF0 tornado, Simeon, Virginia, August 2, 2018

This EF0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Albemarle County on August 2, 2018, touching down at 11:00 AM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
August 2, 2018
Touchdown
11:00 AM EDT (15:00 UTC)
Lifted
11:05 AM EDT (15:05 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Albemarle County
Touchdown point
37.981, -78.507
Lift-off point
38.003, -78.482
Record number
1808020900-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A stalled front near the region combined with high instability and moderate shear values to produce thunderstorms, a few of which became severe.

A EF-0 tornado touched down 2 miles south of the city limits of|the City of Charlottesville in the Avon Park area of Albemarle|County. The touchdown point at 11:00 AM was near the intersection|of Avon Street Extension and Scottsville Road. The tornado |tracked northeast, roughly parallel to Scottsville Road. Many |trees were uprooted or had large portions snapped off. There was |some minor structural damage to Monticello High School involving |windows and doors. Also at the school, trees and parking lot |lights were downed. A chimney was toppled onto the roof of a home |on Galaxie Farm Lane. The tornado dissipated 5 minutes later |as it crossed near the intersection of Willow Lake Drive and |Scottsville Road.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:24 UTC15:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLWX
23:01 UTC01:26 UTCFlood WarningLWX

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:44 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), 12:00Z

3.0 hours before the tornado, 125 km from the path. August 2, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Roanoke, VA at 12:00Z on 2018-08-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 313 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 459 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Roanoke, VA at 12:00Z on 2018-08-02The 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 -54 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.193958Sfc1 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
313 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
833 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
459 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-54 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.1
Supercell composite
-0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Roanoke, VA (KRNK), 00:00Z

9.0 hours after it, 125 km from the path. August 3, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Roanoke, VA at 00:00Z on 2018-08-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 426 joules per kilogram, CIN -4, lifted condensation level 722 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Roanoke, VA at 00:00Z on 2018-08-03The 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 114 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.193958Sfc1 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
426 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-4 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2886 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
722 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
114 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
186 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
6.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 140 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:59 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
15:00 UTCTORNADO4 Ssw CharlottesvilleAlbemarle, VAEF-0 TORNADO. 2 MILE PATH LENGTH. EST MAX WIND SPEEDS 70 MPH, MAX WIDTH 75 YARDS WIDE. INITIAL TOUCHDOWN AT 1100 AM NEAR INTERSECTION OF AVON STREET EXTENDED AND SCOTTSVILLE RD. TORNADO TRACKED NORTHEAST ROUGHLY PARALLEL
15:08 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Nnw OvertonAlbemarle, VATREE DOWN ON SCOTTSVILL RD AT AVON STREET EXTENDED.
15:34 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Sse RuckersvilleGreene, VATREE DOWN AT 1300 BLOCK OF CARPENTER MILL ROAD
16:02 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 S Twymans MillMadison, VATREE DOWN ON SLAUGHTER DRIVE

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 2, 2018

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 23:57 PM EDTEF0Jones, GA1.1100$15,000
August 210:20 PM EDTEF0Queens, NY0.8100$10,000

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.