EF2 tornado, Delaware to Dory, Virginia, August 4, 2020

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF2

Date

August 4, 2020

Touchdown

2:49 AM EDT (06:49 UTC)

Lifted

3:19 AM EDT (07:19 UTC)

On the ground

30 minutes

Path length

15.9 miles (25.6 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$8.0 million

County

Southampton County

Touchdown point

36.645, -76.990

Lift-off point

36.858, -77.099

Record number

2008040049-01

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS AKQ, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 60 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

The center of Tropical Storm Isaias tracked north just inland of the Middle Atlantic Coast from late Monday night, August 3rd through Tuesday morning, August 4th. Outer bands north and east of the Tropical Storm produced seven tornadoes across portions of eastern and southeast Virginia.

A damage survey conducted by the NWS Wakefield office found a path of storm damage consistent with an EF2 tornado. The damage began near the Southampton Power Station off General Thomas Highway and ended 4 miles north of Sebrell near Farmers Bridge Road. The tornado first touched down in a wooded area and caused numerous trees to be snapped about 6 miles southeast of Courtland. The tornado then moved northeast and into Courtland, where it caused damage to numerous homes and businesses along Highway 58, including lifting the second story roof off a hotel building. Several vehicles were also overturned. The tornado then continued to travel northeast where more trees were snapped or uprooted. The tornado finally lifted just north of Sebrell near Farmers Bridge Road.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

4 minutes of warning. NWS AKQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:45 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 06:28 UTC and running to 09:42 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:53 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 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.

Franklin/J B Rose (FKN), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:49 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in VirginiaEvery tornado in Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

30 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.