Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 2004

F1 tornado, Pineview, North Carolina, August 12, 2004

This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Harnett County on August 12, 2004, touching down at 3:47 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 4.

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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
August 12, 2004
Touchdown
3:47 PM EDT (19:47 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
4
County
Harnett County
Touchdown point
35.300, -79.120
Lift-off point
35.330, -79.070
Record number
1548

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down near the intersection of Highways 24 and 27, south of Pineview. The tornado moved across Heritage Park Subdivision and the Carolina Lakes Golf Course. Three mobile homes were blown off their foundations and were destroyed in and around Heritage Park. An additional two dozen homes sustained minor damage to siding, windows and shingles. The Spout Springs Presbyterian Church was also partially destroyed. In all, 120 buildings had minor damage, 23 had major damage, and 11 were condemned; of those 11, nine were completely destroyed. Four people were reported injured, three of which occurred in one of the mobile homes blown off its foundation.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS RAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:46 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:46 UTC20:30 UTCTornado WarningRAH

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 13:01 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 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.

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), 12:00Z

7.8 hours before the tornado, 112 km from the path. August 12, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 12:00Z on 2004-08-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 634 joules per kilogram, CIN -30, lifted condensation level 701 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, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 12:00Z on 2004-08-12The 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 47 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
634 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-30 J/kg
Surface CAPE
302 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
701 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), 00:00Z

4.2 hours after it, 112 km from the path. August 13, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 00:00Z on 2004-08-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 102 joules per kilogram, CIN -29, lifted condensation level 695 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, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 00:00Z on 2004-08-13The 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 73 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
102 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-29 J/kg
Surface CAPE
690 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
695 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Raleigh/Durham radar (KRAX), 67 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:48 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGSilver HillScotland, NCTREES AND POWER LINES REPORTED DOWN.
19:50 UTCTORNADOPineviewHarnett, NCMULTIPLE TORNADO TOUCHDOWNS IN THE CAROLINA HILLS AREA, JOHNSONVILLE, MARKS ROAD, AND THE INTERSECTION OF NC RTE 24 AND 27. MULTIPLE REPORTS OF DAMAGE AND INJURIES
19:52 UTCTORNADO6 Ne Mt PleasantHarnett, NC*** 3 INJ *** IN THE HERITAGE VILLAGE AREA, 2 HOMES DESTROYED, APPROIMATELY 10 HOMES DAMAGED, 1 CHURCH DAMAGED. 3 MINOR INJURIES REPORTED.
20:07 UTCTSTM WND DMGCameronMoore, NCTREE ON A HOUSE
20:35 UTCFLASH FLOODCaryWake, NCJUNCTION OF US 1 AND US 64 AT EXIT 98A FLOODED.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 12, 2004

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 1212:12 PM EDTF1Fairfield, SC2.0440$300,000
August 121:45 PM EDTF1Chesterfield, SC6.0440$800,000
August 122:00 PM EDTF0Horry, SC1.025
August 122:20 PM EDTF0Marlboro, SC1.725
August 122:25 PM EDTF0Saint Lucie, FL0.130
August 122:40 PM EDTF1Scotland, NC6.050
August 122:50 PM EDTF1Union, FL1.01
August 123:00 PM EDTF1Bradford, FL1.01
August 124:00 PM EDTF2Duval, FL7.01
August 124:05 PM EDTF0Palm Beach, FL0.315
August 124:25 PM EDTF1Rockingham, NC0.020
August 124:38 PM EDTF1City of Danville, VA1.05871$780,000
August 126:13 PM CDTF0Castro, TX0.140
August 126:35 PM CDTF0Castro, TX0.140
August 127:45 PM EDTF0Lee, FL0.120
August 1211:55 PM EDTF1Charleston, SC3.0100

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.