Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 2008

EF0 tornado, Archer, North Carolina, August 27, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Johnston County on August 27, 2008, touching down at 1:44 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF0
Date
August 27, 2008
Touchdown
1:44 PM EDT (17:44 UTC)
Lifted
1:46 PM EDT (17:46 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Johnston County
Touchdown point
35.710, -78.330
Lift-off point
35.710, -78.330
Record number
0808271144-01

What the Weather Service recorded

The remnants of Hurricane Fay which made landfall along the Louisiana coast moved northeast across central North Carolina producing several weak tornadoes along with significant flash flooding.

Local fire deparments and law enforcement reported a brief tornado touchdown near the intersection of Covered Bridge Road and Thanksgiving Road. Multiple trees were snapped and uprooted in the highly wooded area.

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS RAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:41 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 13:16 UTC and running to 20:56 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
13:16 UTC20:56 UTCTornado WatchRAH
14:07 UTC17:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryRAH
14:45 UTC15:15 UTCTornado WarningRAH
15:00 UTC18:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningRAH
17:41 UTC18:15 UTCTornado WarningRAH
18:10 UTC18:45 UTCTornado WarningRAH
20:01 UTC23:00 UTCFlood AdvisoryRAH

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 16:12 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

5.7 hours before the tornado, 147 km from the path. August 27, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 12:00Z on 2008-08-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 229 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 493 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 2008-08-27The 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 237 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
229 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
72 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
493 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
237 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
270 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.9
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.3 hours after it, 147 km from the path. August 28, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 00:00Z on 2008-08-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 187 joules per kilogram, CIN -56, lifted condensation level 509 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 2008-08-28The 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 106 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 12 knots.1939Sfc1 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
187 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-56 J/kg
Surface CAPE
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
509 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
106 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
106 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Raleigh/Durham radar (KRAX), 15 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:46 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
17:25 UTCTORNADO6 W WilsonWilson, NCLAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED A TORNANDO TOUCHDOWN NEAR HIGHWAY 42 AND LLOYD ROAD.
17:41 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 Wnw WilsonWilson, NCLAW ENFORCEMENT AND SPOTTER REPORTED A FUNNEL CLOUD NEAR HIGHWAY 264 AND I-95.
17:44 UTCTORNADO3 Ssw LinwoodJohnston, NCLAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTED TORNADO ON THE GROUND AT COVERED BRIDGE ROAD AND THANKSGIVING FIRE ROAD. MULTIPLE TREES DOWN IN ROAD.
17:55 UTCTORNADO6 Nw WilsonWilson, NCSPOTTERS REPORT TORNADO ON THE GROUND NEAR I-95 AND BLOOMERY ROAD.
18:09 UTCTORNADO4 Nw New HopeNash, NCTORNADO TOUCHDOWN HIGHWAY 97, ONE HALF MILE WEST OF INTERSTATE 95.
18:13 UTCTORNADO3 W New HopeWilson, NCSPOTTER REPORTED BRIEF TOUCHDOWN IN A TOBACCO AND SOYBEAN FIELD NEAR LAMM ROAD AND BLOOMERY ROAD. CURRENTLY ALOFT BUT WALL CLOUD STILL ROTATING.
19:15 UTCTORNADO4 Nw New HopeNash, NCTORNADO TOUCHDOWN HIGHWAY 97, ONE HALF MILE WEST OF INTERSTATE 95.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 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 27, 2008

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 2712:30 PM EDTEF0Randolph, NC0.550$2,000
August 271:05 PM EDTEF0Pender, NC0.010
August 271:50 PM EDTEF0Wilson, NC4.550
August 274:08 PM EDTEF0Chatham, NC2.6100$20,000
August 2712:57 AM EDTEF0Wilson, NC1.9100$150,000

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.