Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 2006

F0 tornado, Frisco, North Carolina, June 14, 2006

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Dare County on June 14, 2006, touching down at 2:40 PM EDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 14, 2006
Touchdown
2:40 PM EDT (18:40 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Dare County
Touchdown point
35.230, -75.630
Lift-off point
35.230, -75.630
Record number
636

What the Weather Service recorded

The remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto moved across Eastern North Carolina during the afternoon producing sustained winds of 30 to 40 mph and damaging wind gusts to near 60 mph. Waterspouts moved onshore as weak tornadoes in Carteret and Dare counties resulting in minor damage.

Waterspout moved over land at mile marker 70 near Frisco.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:00 UTC14:11 UTCFlood WatchMHX
10:00 UTC06:00 UTCCoastal Flood StatementMHX
16:00 UTC16:05 UTCWind AdvisoryMHX
21:00 UTC23:00 UTCHigh Wind WarningMHX

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 16:33 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.

Newport, NC (KMHX), 12:00Z

6.7 hours before the tornado, 124 km from the path. June 14, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Newport, NC at 12:00Z on 2006-06-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 161 joules per kilogram, CIN -55, lifted condensation level 596 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, Newport, NC at 12:00Z on 2006-06-14The 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 128 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.193958Sfc1 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
161 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-55 J/kg
Surface CAPE
455 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
596 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
128 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
194 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Newport, NC (KMHX), 00:00Z

5.3 hours after it, 124 km from the path. June 15, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Newport, NC at 00:00Z on 2006-06-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 902 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, Newport, NC at 00:00Z on 2006-06-15The 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 -9 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
60 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
902 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-9 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Hatteras_(Asos) (HSE), 1 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
16:51 UTC7870120° 19 kt1010.5
17:51 UTC7472120° 15 kt261008.5+RA BR
18:51 UTC7674170° 20 kt251006.4-RA BR
19:51 UTC7772190° 17 kt261004.4HZ

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

The radar

The Morehead City radar (KMHX), 124 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
18:27 UTCWATERSPOUT 02 W BuxtonDare, NCDARE COUNTY 911 RELAYED REPORT OF WATERSPOUT OVER CANADIAN HOLE WEST OF BUXTON THAT DISSIPATED QUICKLY.
18:36 UTCWATERSPOUT 03 Wsw Hatteras VillageAmz135, NCCOAST GUARD REPORTED WATERSPOUT ABOUT TO COME ONSHORE JUST NORTH OF HATTERAS INLET.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 14, 2006

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 1412:40 PM EDTF0Carteret, NC0.525$30,000

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.