Tornadoes · United States · West Virginia · 2008

EF0 tornado, Arr to Cranesville, West Virginia, May 31, 2008

From Arr to Cranesville, this EF0 tornado ran 1.4 miles across Preston County on May 31, 2008, touching down at 8:30 AM EDT and reaching 80 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $75,000 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.

  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
May 31, 2008
Touchdown
8:30 AM EDT (12:30 UTC)
Lifted
8:32 AM EDT (12:32 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.4 miles (2.3 km)
Path width
80 yards (73 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$75,000
County
Preston County
Touchdown point
39.560, -79.517
Lift-off point
39.550, -79.494
Record number
0805310630-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A slow moving cold front combined with a strong upper level system produced scattered severe thunderstorms across southeast Ohio, western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, and Garrett county Maryland. One severe thunderstorm produced an EF0 tornado in Preston county, West Virginia. Heavy rains also produced some road flooding in Garrett county Maryland.

An NWS storm survey found an EF0 tornado occurred in Preston county west of Cranesville, or about 9 miles north of Terra Alta. The tornado had estimated winds near 80 MPH. The tornado snapped or toppled many trees along its path. Two homes suffered damage, with the wall of one home blown out and another wall buckled. A double wide home was pushed off its foundation. Some out buildings were damaged and windows shattered, with one injury from flying glass.

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.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 08:13 UTC and running to 14:29 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
08:13 UTC14:29 UTCTornado WatchPBZ
12:07 UTC13:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPBZ
14:29 UTC21:00 UTCTornado WatchPBZ

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 05:57 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.

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 12:00Z

0.5 hours before the tornado, 108 km from the path. May 31, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 2008-05-31Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 32 joules per kilogram, CIN -77, lifted condensation level 656 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Pittsburgh, PA at 12:00Z on 2008-05-31The 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 329 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
32 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-77 J/kg
Surface CAPE
33 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
656 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
329 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
377 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 00:00Z

11.5 hours after it, 108 km from the path. June 1, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 2008-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 816 joules per kilogram, CIN -17, lifted condensation level 1507 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Pittsburgh, PA at 00:00Z on 2008-06-01The 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 68 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
816 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1130 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1507 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Oakland (2G4), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
10:35 UTC62.660.8230° 11 kt211013.2BR
10:55 UTC62.660.8230° 14 kt231012.9BR
11:15 UTC64.460.8220° 17 kt211012.5BR
11:35 UTC64.462.6220° 13 kt251012.2BR
12:00 UTC64.462.6230° 14 kt261011.9BR
12:20 UTC64.460.8230° 17 kt261011.9BR
12:40 UTC62.659310° 10 kt301012.2BR
13:00 UTC57.255.4310° 7 kt171012.9BR
13:25 UTC57.255.4320° 4 kt1012.5BR
13:45 UTC57.255.4340° 3 kt1012.2BR
14:05 UTC57.255.4290° 3 kt1012.2BR
14:25 UTC5957.250° 4 kt1011.9BR

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

The radar

The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 124 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 12:30 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
12:30 UTCTORNADO9 Nne Terra AltaGarrett, MD*** 1 INJ *** EFO TORNADO. PATH LENGTH ABOUT ONE AND ONE HALF MILES. WIDTH ABOUT 80 YARDS. MAXIMUM ESTIMATED WINDS ABOUT 80 MPH. MANY TREES SNAPPED OR TOPPLED. TWO HOUSES WITH SOME STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. GARAGE WALL BLOWN OU
12:30 UTCTORNADO9 N Terra AltaPreston, WV*** 1 INJ *** EFO TORNADO. PATH LENGTH ABOUT ONE AND ONE HALF MILES. WIDTH ABOUT 80 YARDS. MAXIMUM ESTIMATED WINDS ABOUT 80 MPH. MANY TREES SNAPPED OR TOPPLED. TWO HOUSES WITH SOME STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. GARAGE WALL BLOWN OU
12:40 UTCTSTM WND DMG6 Nne Terra AltaPreston, WVEMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORTED A PORCH BLOWN OFF A MOBILE HOME AND A NUMBER OF WINDOWS BLOWN OUT/DAMAGED IN ANOTHER MOBILE HOME 1 MILE SOUTH OF CRANESVILLE.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 31, 2008

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 314:52 PM EDTEF0King William, VA1.050$50,000
May 317:07 PM CDTEF0Osage, OK0.150

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.