Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 1984

F2 tornado, Chowan and Perquimans counties, North Carolina, March 28, 1984

This F2 tornado ran 6.0 miles across Chowan and Perquimans counties on March 28, 1984, touching down at 10:15 PM EST and reaching 177 yards wide. It killed 1 person and injured 1, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

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 mphthis tornado

    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.

The record

Rating
F2
Date
March 28, 1984
Touchdown
10:15 PM EST (03:15 UTC)
Path length
6.0 miles (9.7 km)
Path width
177 yards (162 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
1
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Chowan and Perquimans counties
Touchdown point
36.070, -76.580
Lift-off point
36.100, -76.500
Record number
101

What the Weather Service recorded

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
Direct

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Cape Hatteras, NC (KHAT), 00:00Z

3.3 hours before the tornado, 131 km from the path. March 29, 1984.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Hatteras, NC at 00:00Z on 1984-03-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 361 joules per kilogram, CIN -212, lifted condensation level 833 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cape Hatteras, NC at 00:00Z on 1984-03-29The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 213 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
361 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-212 J/kg
Surface CAPE
37 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
833 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
213 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
122 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cape Hatteras, NC (KHAT), 12:00Z

8.7 hours after it, 131 km from the path. March 29, 1984.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cape Hatteras, NC at 12:00Z on 1984-03-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -11882, lifted condensation level 881 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Cape Hatteras, NC at 12:00Z on 1984-03-29The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 146 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11882 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
881 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
146 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
129 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1984 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 28, 1984

28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 2812:08 AM CSTF1Fayette, AL0.5100$500 to $5,000
March 281:19 AM CSTF1Jefferson, AL0.160$5,000 to $50,000
March 283:45 AM ESTF0Carroll, GA0.520$5,000 to $50,000
March 284:00 AM ESTF1Carroll, GA5.010$50,000 to $500,000
March 285:15 AM ESTF0Spalding, GA2.030$5,000 to $50,000
March 283:25 PM ESTF1Barrow, GA12.0501$50,000 to $500,000
March 284:30 PM ESTF1Abbeville, SC3.017724$5 million to $50 million
March 284:30 PM ESTF0Henry, GA0.520$50 to $500
March 284:40 PM ESTF2Laurens, SC10.070043$5 million to $50 million
March 285:20 PM ESTF2Newberry, SC23.01,000138$5 million to $50 million
March 285:45 PM ESTF3Newberry, SC19.087010$500,000 to $5 million
March 286:00 PM ESTF4Fairfield, SC21.01,000549$5 million to $50 million
March 286:10 PM ESTF1Union, NC0.333$5,000 to $50,000
March 286:20 PM ESTF4Lancaster, SC4.053036$5 million to $50 million
March 286:40 PM ESTF2Chesterfield, SC2.0530$5,000 to $50,000
March 286:45 PM ESTF4Chesterfield, SC7.070024$5 million to $50 million
March 286:10 PM CSTF4Marlboro, SC to NC17.02,1137100$5 million to $50 million
March 286:20 PM CSTF4Marlboro, SC to NC40.02,6004395$5 million to $50 million
March 287:45 PM ESTF3Cumberland, NC40.01,40712101$5 million to $50 million
March 288:10 PM ESTF2Nash, NC2.0177$500,000 to $5 million
March 288:15 PM ESTF4Sampson, NC21.01,4073149$5 million to $50 million
March 288:30 PM ESTF3Wayne, NC9.052781$5 million to $50 million
March 288:45 PM ESTF4Lenoir, NC28.01,22316153$5 million to $50 million
March 288:55 PM ESTF3Bertie, NC6.0880619$500,000 to $5 million
March 289:10 PM ESTF2Hertford, NC5.05277$5 million to $50 million
March 289:20 PM ESTF1Hertford, NC1.0177$500,000 to $5 million
March 289:30 PM ESTF3Gates, NC14.0880210$500,000 to $5 million
March 288:35 PM CSTF2Horry, SC to NC16.03538$50,000 to $500,000

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.