EF1 tornado, Atkinson to Penderlea, North Carolina, April 28, 2011

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF1

Date

April 28, 2011

Touchdown

4:07 PM EDT (20:07 UTC)

Lifted

4:09 PM EDT (20:09 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.5 km)

Path width

60 yards (55 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$66,000

County

Pender County

Touchdown point

34.510, -78.195

Lift-off point

34.514, -78.192

Record number

1104281407-01

A deep cutoff area of low pressure was located over the Great Lakes with a surface cold front trailing to the south. A humid air mass was in place at the surface with dewpoints in the upper 60s to lower 70s contributing to very low LCLs, as low as 1000 ft. The initial round of severe thunderstorms developed during the morning as height falls and a developing low level jet accelerated. Severe thunderstorms redeveloped along an early afternoon surface convergent boundary in a zone of increasing low level Storm Relative Helicity. Severe thunderstorms persisted into the late afternoon.

A National Weather Service Storm Survey Team concluded a tornado touched down two miles southwest of Atkinson, in Pender County North Carolina. The tornado was rated up to an EF1 with maximum winds estimated to 110 mph. The path length was just shy of a third of a mile and the maximum path width was 60 yards. The tornado first touched down as an EF0 near the edge of a field west of Slocum Trail Road with strong inflow noted on its southern flank causing extreme damage to two grain silos and a barn. The damaged silos and barn were blown across the road. The tornado strengthened to an EF1 along a stand of trees west of Slocum Road before weakening as it moved north-northeast across the road and lifting. A few dozen trees were snapped and uprooted along the path of the tornado.

A National Weather Service Storm Survey Team concluded an EF0 tornado touched down near Atkinson in Pender County, North Carolina. The maximum wind speed was estimated to 85 mph. The path length was near six and a half miles and the maximum path width was 50 yards. The tornado first touched down on the west side of Highway 11, south of Atkinson. The tornado damaged two dozen trees and caused minor damage to three homes. The tornado then moved northeast, crossing Highway 11, just south of Atkinson and then across Rooks Road, damaging more trees. The tornado then crossed Highway 53 in a narrow path, east of Atkinson, snapping a few dozen trees. Finally, as the tornado crossed Point Caswell Road, it downed dozens of trees before lifting.

A National Weather Service Storm Survey Team concluded a tornado touched down 5 miles west-southwest of Watha in Pender County, North Carolina. The maximum wind speed was estimated to 90 mph. The path length was just over three miles and the maximum path width was 60 yards. The tornado first touched down near the fish hatchery on the south side of Shiloh Road. As the tornado moved across Shiloh Road, it uprooted and snapped several dozen trees. Several large trees fell across houses causing roof damage. Other houses suffered minor roof, soffit and siding damage. The damage was rated EF1 in this area with winds to 90 mph. The tornado continued to the northeast and weakened, but did damage the roof of another house on Shiloh Road. The tornado continued to the northeast, crossing Penderlea Highway where it did substantial damage to a large storage building, uprooted several trees and ripped the top off a grain silo. The tornado finally lifted northeast of Penderlea Highway.

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

30 minutes of warning. NWS ILM issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:37 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:19 UTC and running to 23:45 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:06 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

39 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.