Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina

1958 tornadoes in North Carolina

4 tornadoes touched down in North Carolina in 1958, 80 percent below the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

1957 1959 The whole country in 1958

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 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. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 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.

Every tornado in North Carolina in 1958

February 27 1 tornado

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 274:00 PM GMT-5F0Robeson0.110$500 to $5,000

June 12 1 tornado

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 125:00 PM GMT-4F1New Hanover1.0100$5,000 to $50,000

July 24 1 tornado

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 246:00 PM GMT-4F1Dare2.51001$500 to $5,000

July 29 1 tornado

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 295:00 PM GMT-4F0Davidson0.150

Nearby

Every tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North CarolinaThe live radar over North Carolina

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.