F0 tornado, Watha, North Carolina, May 27, 2003

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F0

Date

May 27, 2003

Touchdown

2:37 PM EDT (18:37 UTC)

Path length

7.5 miles (12.1 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

County

Pender County

Touchdown point

34.650, -78.030

Lift-off point

34.650, -77.900

Record number

171

A NWS storm survey determined an F0 tornado touched down 4 miles west of the town of Watha. It snapped 12-15 pine trees up to 18 inches in diameter. One tree hit the side of a house, with minor damage. The tornado complete destroyed a shed in this area. Moving southeast, the tornado snapped six small pine trees, and a wood fence was blown over. More damaged was observed east-southeast of the previous damage, where a barn roof was blown off, and debris was strewn east approximately 100 yards. The minimal tornado then turned on a more east-northeast path, with damage observed east of Watha. Two large trees were uprooted, and a brick chimney was toppled. Eyewitness accounts reported strong rotation in the clouds, just off the ground. The damage path ended 3.5 miles east of Watha, where a couple dozen pine and hardwood trees were snapped, 10-40 feet above the ground.

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

12 minutes of warning. NWS ILM issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:25 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:15 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:31 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.

The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:38 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2003 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.