Tornado in North Carolina, March 20, 1998

Name: Tornado in North Carolina, March 20, 1998
Start: 1998-03-20T18:55
End: 1998-03-20T18:57
Location: North Carolina

March 20, 1998 · NWS RAH · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $100,000
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.

The radar

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

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Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Granville

When: March 20, 6:55 PM EST to 6:57 PM EST
Where: Granville County, Berea
Measured: 2
Rating: F2
Path length: 1.5 mi
Path width: 100 yd
Property damage: $100,000
Coordinates: 36.320, -78.730

This tornado occurred with the same parent thunderstorm that produced a tornado earlier in northeast Durham county. The tornado touched down in Berea on Highway 158. A brick ranch home sustained significant damage to the roof and garage. The next damage appeared 1 mile to the northeast on Hebron Road (State Road 1150). The tornado destroyed several barns on both sides of NC-1150, uprooted several trees, and destroyed the roof of a farm house. The tornado reached F2 at this point. The debris from the home and barns was strewn across fields and treetops. The tornado then moved over a wooded area, snapping trees and finally reaching NC-1306, where it produced F0 damage to outbuildings and a farm house.

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 1998 Every state in 1998 This day in weather history The tornado archive for North Carolina, 1998 Warnings in North Carolina, March 1998

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 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5642874.