RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina has had nearly 1,500 reported tornadoes since 1950, and around one-third of those happen in April and May.
With the Carolinas in turbulent springtime weather, WCNC Charlotte is taking a look at some of the most destructive and infamous tornadoes in North Carolina history.
Something to know
Tornadoes are measured by the Enhanced Fujita Scale ranging from EF-0 to the infamous EF-5. This enhanced scale is designed to relate types of damage more easily with wind speeds and intensities. This enhanced scale came about in 2007, so all reports before that time are listed without the "E" on the legacy Fujita Scale, or simply F0 to F5.
Most importantly: North Carolina has never seen an F5 or EF5.
The strongest tornado
North Carolina has had a dozen F4 tornadoes on record. All were before the enhanced scale began in 2007 and thus North Carolina has never had an EF4 tornado.
The old Fujita scale didn’t estimate exact wind speeds like the modern scale. Instead of using wind speed to determine the strong tornado, let us use path length.
The F4 tornado with the longest track in North Carolina history was on the ground for 83 miles. With winds likely ranging over 165 mph.
"While it was only at F4 strength over a small portion of its path in west and north Raleigh, it was a deadly and extremely damaging tornado over its full path length," Corey Davis, the North Carolina assistant state climatologist said.
The tornado with the longest track
Nov. 23, 1992, was the third day of a historic multi-state tornado outbreak. Of all the storms, the tornado that touched down in Harnett County, which is located just south of Raleigh, tracked northeastward 160 miles to Elizabeth City. The peak strength was an F3.
"I will note that some literature has theorized that this could have been a family of multiple tornadoes spawned by the same supercell, but since it's prior to the Doppler radar era, we have no way of knowing for sure," Davis, who graciously contributed much of the data in this Weather IQ, explained. "This is a common question about many long-lived historical tornadoes, including the apparent US record 'Tri-State tornado' in March 1925, which was said to have a continuous path length of 219 miles."
The widest tornado
One of the most famous days in North Carolina weather history was March 28, 1984.
The top four widest tornadoes in North Carolina history occurred during the March 1984 outbreak. On that day, 14 tornadoes were confirmed with two tornadoes being over a mile wide.
An F4 in Scotland, Robeson and Cumberland counties had a width of over 2,600 yards, or 1.5 miles.
The F4 tornado in Scotland County, which began in Marlboro County, South Carolina, had a width of over 2,100 yards, or 1.2 miles.
Of North Carolina's other noteworthy tornadoes:
- Third-widest: The F4 tornado in Sampson, Duplin and Wayne counties had a width of 1,407 yards, or 0.8 miles.
- Fourth-widest: The F3 tornado in Bladen, Cumberland and Sampson counties also had a width of 1,407 yards, or 0.8 miles.
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The deadliest tornado
The March 1984 outbreak also had the state's deadliest tornado. It was an F4 tornado in Lenoir, Greene and Pitt counties. The storm was blamed for 16 deaths and 153 injuries.
"There's a tie for the second-deadliest tornado," Davis said. "Both the Bladen/Cumberland/Sampson F3 tornado on March 28, 1984 and the Bertie/Hertford EF3 tornado on April 16, 2011 caused 12 fatalities."
The biggest single-day outbreak
The most famous North Carolina tornado outbreak was associated with another multi-day weather system. A whopping 32 tornadoes crossed North Carolina on April 16, 2011.
"I have written about that event, and the potent atmospheric pattern that led to it, on our Climate Blog," Davis said. "You may notice that the blog post shows 30 tornadoes on that date instead of 32. In more recent reanalysis, [NOAA's Storm Prediction Center] split up two tornado tracks that crossed coastal waters into separate events, rather than keeping them grouped as single events."
Most tornadoes in a single year
The busiest year was 2004, which had 67 tornadoes throughout the year. This year was unique since most of the tornadoes were reported in June, August and September as opposed to the typical peak of April and May.
That same year is also famous for being one of the most active and strongest hurricane seasons on record. Most of the tornadoes that season were from the remnants of tropical systems, including Bonnie, Charley, Gaston, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne.
Among North Carolina's years with the most tornadoes, 2011 and 1998 are a close second. Each year recorded 66 tornadoes. Almost half of the tornadoes in 2011 occurred on that single date, April 16.
Most active season
Within two weeks of the April 16, 2011, outbreak, the days of April 27 and 28 saw 13 tornadoes. That makes April 2011 the most active month in North Carolina's tornado history.
The second most active season came in the spring of 1998, according to Davis. There were 20 tornadoes on May 7, 1998. Many of those tornadoes were in the western Piedmont of North Carolina. That day saw the state's final, and most recent, F4 tornado, which occurred in Caldwell County.
The summer of 2004 saw 35 tornadoes, according to Davis. The fall of 2018 saw 31 tornadoes, including 27 tornadoes over a five-day period associated with Hurricane Florence.
Tornadoes per category
There are only 73 years of recorded tornado history between 1950 and 2023.
Beginning with the legacy Fujita Scale from 1950 to 2006, F1s account for 41.3% of all of North Carolina's tornadoes. Combined, F0 and F1 tornadoes make up nearly 80% of all recorded tornadoes in the state.
Fujita Scale
- F-0: 381
- F-1: 410
- F-2: 161
- F-3: 29
- F-4: 12
- F-5: 0
From 2007 through 2022, there has never been an EF4 tornado. Most of the tornadoes were found to be of EF0 strength. Like the previous time period, this smaller sample size saw about 84% of all tornadoes were either EF0 or EF1.
Enhanced Fujita Scale
- EF-0: 251
- EF-1: 162
- EF-2: 55
- EF-3: 11
- EF-4: 0
- EF-5: 0
Over the last 30 years, North Carolina averaged 30 tornadoes per year with a majority happening east of Charlotte.
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