Tornado in North Carolina, April 15, 1996

Name: Tornado in North Carolina, April 15, 1996
Start: 1996-04-15T17:08
End: 1996-04-15T17:23
Location: North Carolina

April 15, 1996 · NWS RAH · 1 event in 1 county or zone

An F0 tornado initially touched down off Hwy 64 in Wendell. The tornado width was initially only 50 feet where several trees were taken down.

Where it happened

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $10,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS RAH wrote it up.

An F0 tornado initially touched down off Hwy 64 in Wendell. The tornado width was initially only 50 feet where several trees were taken down. The tornado increased in width to 200 yards as it paralleled Hwy 64 and moved into the west side of the town of Zebulon. The storm damaged the Courtesy Car Dealership and tossed a showroom car across the highway. Numerous trees were twisted and felled. The tornado then crossed the highway and narrowed significantly as it reached Hwy 96 and Greenspeace Road about 0.3 miles west of the Wakefield community where it lifted.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Wake

When: April 15, 5:08 PM EST to 5:23 PM EST
Where: Wake County, Wendell to Wakefield
Rating: F0
Path length: 2 mi
Path width: 200 yd
Property damage: $10,000
Coordinates: 35.780, -78.380

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in North Carolina in 1996 Every state in 1996 This day in weather history The tornado archive for North Carolina, 1996 Warnings in North Carolina, April 1996

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5556979.