F1 tornado, Wendell to Zebulon, North Carolina, April 15, 1996

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F1

Date

April 15, 1996

Touchdown

6:25 PM EDT (22:25 UTC)

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

26

Property damage

$3.0 million

County

Wake County

Touchdown point

35.780, -78.380

Lift-off point

35.820, -78.330

Record number

576

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 second is a series of three tornadoes began about 100 yards to the SE of where the first tornado began (off Hwy 64 in Wendell). The storm was initially less than 25 yards wide asit moved NNE and twisted trees and blew shingles off several houses. About one half mile from the initial touchdown, the storm widened to 50 yards as it approached the town of Zebulon. Trees were downed and the roof was blown off a brick home near the railroad tracks. Another home and a manufactured home were damaged as the storm crossed a street and moved up a hill. The storm then preceded over and down the hill into a mobile home park. Damage was extensive to all the trailers in the park that were directly in the path. The storm continued moving NNE into downtown Zebulon where it downed numerous large trees. Houses in the direct path of the storm were all brick and sustained only roof damage. The Zebulon Middle School sustained major roof damage to the main building. The tornado was last noted at Karial and Old Bunn Roads where minor damage occurred to a frame house and severel trees were twisted.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS RAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:16 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:59 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Raleigh / Durham (RDU), 40 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.