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.
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
- 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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15:24 UTC | 15:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LWX |
| 23:01 UTC | 01:26 UTC | Flood Warning | LWX |
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.
- 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
Roanoke, VA (KRNK), 00:00Z
9.0 hours after it, 125 km from the path. August 3, 2018.
- 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
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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:00 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Ssw Charlottesville | Albemarle, VA | EF-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 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Nnw Overton | Albemarle, VA | TREE DOWN ON SCOTTSVILL RD AT AVON STREET EXTENDED. |
| 15:34 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Sse Ruckersville | Greene, VA | TREE DOWN AT 1300 BLOCK OF CARPENTER MILL ROAD |
| 16:02 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 S Twymans Mill | Madison, VA | TREE 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.
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.