jeremy_wheeler's Blog

A very active weather day on Monday.  Storms fired up in the early afternoon and then produced severe weather.  We had multiple reports of tornadoes and funnel clouds through Monday afternoon.  Major damage was reported from just north of Downtown Suffolk Northeast to the Driver area in North Suffolk.  Minor damage was reported at Norfolk Naval Base and Damage was reported up around Mathews County, but it has yet to be determined how much damage was from tornadoes versus straight line winds.  We'll get the official survey reports from the national weather service.  But... looking at the video and damage I would estimate that it was an EF3 - EF4 for the worst areas.  Again the National Weather Service will give their official assesments.  This represents winds of about 140-200mph.  One of the photos is posted here. 

Looking at tornado climatology...The last time our area saw an F3 was back in 1993 in Urbanna, Virginia.  An F4 tornado also hit Petersburg in August of 1993.  4 deaths were reported from that storm. 

To sum up the weather during the event.  There was a strong line of storms that moved in from Central Virginia.  Isolated storms formed out ahead of the line and moved northeast at 50mph.  These supercells are the most dangerous storms as they don't have to compete for the moisture like the storms in the line. There was ample humidity and spin at the surface.  The instability was good, but not amazing.  There was rain before the event and little sunshine.  This goes against most strong tornadoes that I've observed where usually pre-storm sunshine plays a direct role in forming severe weather. 

The damage reports will come in and we'll update this event as we get the reports.  Our hearts go out to the residents who have been  affected by this tremendous storm.