Tornadoes · United States · Virginia · 2019
EF1 tornado, Wurno, Virginia, August 9, 2019
This EF1 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Pulaski County on August 9, 2019, touching down at 8:10 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- August 9, 2019
- Touchdown
- 8:10 PM EDT (00:10 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:11 PM EDT (00:11 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.3 miles (0.4 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $200,000
- County
- Pulaski County
- Touchdown point
- 37.102, -80.780
- Lift-off point
- 37.103, -80.776
- Record number
- 1908091810-01
The damage survey
23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS RNK, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 93 mph.
- Southeastern extent of surveyed damage. Fence supports are metal and rusted at base of place failure.
- Wild cherry tree. Large limbs snapped at end of large open field immediately upstream of damage point.
- Additional wild cherry limbs broken ar southeastern edge of microburst area. Additional similar damage further southwest at 290 yards.
- Additional damage at center point of damage oval. Locust tree snapped.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A surface cold front combined with afternoon instability to spark scattered, fast moving thunderstorms in Virginia, particularly in the New River Valley. Several reports of severe thunderstorm wind damage occurred, as well as brief tornado in Pulaski County.
A supercell thunderstorm mainly generating severe straight line winds produced a brief embedded EF1 tornado that traveled a quarter mile. This brief tornado snapped and downed numerous trees as it tracked parallel to Sunrise Drive in the community of Bella Vista in Pulaski County. Multiple outbuildings and one large equipment shed were destroyed. Vehicles inside the shed were completely destroyed, including a collectible antique vehicle. An estimated 100 or more trees were downed in the tornado event.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:28 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RNK |
| 00:07 UTC | 00:51 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RNK |
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 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.
Roanoke, VA (KRNK), 00:00Z
0.2 hours before the tornado, 114 km from the path. August 10, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 354 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -24 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2277 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1514 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 42 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 17 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 75 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 167 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 3.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.9 K/km
Roanoke, VA (KRNK), 12:00Z
11.8 hours after it, 114 km from the path. August 10, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 81 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -87 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 935 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 27 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 113 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.5 K/km
The surface observations
Dublin/New Riv Vlly (PSK), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:15 UTC | 84.4 | 64.6 | 280° 6 kt | 1014.6 | ||
| 22:35 UTC | 82.6 | 65.5 | 290° 5 kt | 1014.9 | ||
| 22:55 UTC | 81 | 65 | 300° 5 kt | 1014.9 | ||
| 23:15 UTC | 80 | 66.2 | 360° 4 kt | 1014.9 | ||
| 23:35 UTC | 79.3 | 66.7 | 10° 5 kt | 1015.2 | ||
| 23:55 UTC | 77.7 | 66.4 | 350° 5 kt | 1015.6 | -RA | |
| 00:15 UTC | 74.3 | 67.6 | 300° 7 kt | 1015.9 | RA | |
| 00:35 UTC | 71.2 | 65.5 | 240° 5 kt | 16 | 1015.9 | |
| 00:55 UTC | 68.7 | 65.3 | 300° 4 kt | 1015.9 | ||
| 01:15 UTC | 67.6 | 65 | 340° 4 kt | 1016.3 | ||
| 01:35 UTC | 67 | 65.3 | 200° 3 kt | 1016.6 | ||
| 01:55 UTC | 66.4 | 64.6 | 0° 0 kt | 1016.6 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Roanoke radar (KFCX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:58 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S White Gate | Giles, VA | STORM SURVEY TEAM FOUND NUMEROUS LARGE LIMBS DOWNED IN A HALF MILE RADIUS FROM AN APPARENT MICRO-BURST FROM A SUPERCELL. TIMING ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 00:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nne Pulaski | Pulaski, VA | NUMEROUS DOWNED TREES AND HOMES WITH MISSING SHINGLES FROM STRAIGHT-LINE WINDS WITH AN ASSOCIATED SUPERCELL THAT MOVED THROUGH THE AREA. TIMING ESTIMATED BY RADAR. |
| 00:11 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Nne Pulaski | Pulaski, VA | AFTER SURVEYING, THE NWS STORM SURVEY TEAM FOUND DAMAGE THAT INDICATED AN EF-1 TORNADO THAT TRAVELED 0.25 MILES, SNAPPING NUMEROUS TREES. |
| 00:14 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Se White Gate | Giles, VA | GILES COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTS THAT HUNDREDS OF TREES WERE DOWN NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF FLAT HOLLOW AND WHITE PINE. RESIDENTS OF THE AREA CLAIM IT WAS A TORNADO AND THEY SAW A FUNNEL CLOUD. THERE WAS ALSO SCATTE |
| 00:14 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | White Gate | Giles, VA | CORRECTS PREVIOUS TSTM WND DMG REPORT FROM WHITE GATE. NUMEROUS TREES DOWN IN THE WHITE GATE AREA OF WESTERN GILES COUNTY NEAR THE BLAND COUNTY LINE. SEVERAL ROADS BLOCKED BY DOWNED TREES. TREES DOWN ON SOME VEHICLES AS |
| 00:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 Ne Pulaski | Pulaski, VA | UP TO 15 LARGE TREES DOWN ALONG ALUM SPRINGS ROAD JUST NORTH OF PULASKI. ROAD BLOCKED FROM DOWNED TREES AND POWER LINES. |
| 00:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Nne Pulaski | Pulaski, VA | NUMEROUS LARGE TREES DOWN ALONG WITH SOME STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO BUILDINGS ON SUNRISE DRIVE. |
| 01:26 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | White Gate | Giles, VA | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN IN THE WHITE GATE AREA OF WESTERN GILES COUNTY NEAR THE BLAND COUNTY LINE. SEVERAL ROADS BLOCKED BY DOWNED TREES. TREES DOWN ON SOME VEHICLES AS WELL. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 9, 2019
3 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.