Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 2011

EF0 tornado, Paynes Store, North Carolina, August 18, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Alexander County on August 18, 2011, touching down at 5:35 PM EDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500,000 of property damage.

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 18, 2011
Touchdown
5:35 PM EDT (21:35 UTC)
Lifted
5:36 PM EDT (21:36 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500,000
County
Alexander County
Touchdown point
35.896, -81.143
Lift-off point
35.891, -81.141
Record number
1108181535-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A few thunderstorms developed over western North Carolina during the afternoon hours. One of the storms briefly took on supercell characteristics, despite weak wind shear, and produced a brief tornado.

A small area of tornadic damage was surveyed in the Powell Rd, Taylorsville Manufacturing Rd area. A manufactured home was pushed off its block foundation and several outbuildings were destroyed. Several homes also received damage due to wind-blown hail.

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
21:10 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP
21:52 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGSP

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:44 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

9.6 hours before the tornado, 114 km from the path. August 18, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 12:00Z on 2011-08-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 257 joules per kilogram, CIN -74, lifted condensation level 1327 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 2011-08-18The 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 32 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 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
257 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-74 J/kg
Surface CAPE
49 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1327 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
32 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-9 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.4 hours after it, 114 km from the path. August 19, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 00:00Z on 2011-08-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 740 joules per kilogram, CIN -47, lifted condensation level 1632 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 2011-08-19The 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 -19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
740 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-47 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1167 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1632 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
23 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Roanoke radar (KFCX), 148 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:35 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
20:15 UTCHAIL 11 Nne Maple SpringsWilkes, NCQUARTER HAIL AT 1042 BUCK MOUNTAIN RD
20:21 UTCTSTM WND DMGRoaring RiverWilkes, NCTREE DOWN
20:25 UTCHAIL 0.254 Ese Deep GapWilkes, NC
20:42 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Wsw RondaWilkes, NCTWO TREES DOWN. ONE ON ROUTE 268 EAST AND THE OTHER ON PEACOCK STREET.
20:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 Nw RondaWilkes, NCA SPOTTER REPORTED THAT SEVERAL LARGE LIMBS WERE BLOWN DOWN.
21:30 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ese TaylorsvilleAlexander, NCFOUR MOBILE HOMES BLOWN OFF THEIR FOUNDATIONS ON TAYLORSVILLE MANUFACTORING ROAD.
21:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGTaylorsvilleAlexander, NCTREES DOWN ALL OVER THE COUNTY. MANY REPORTS OF LARGE HAIL...NOT SURE ON THE ACTUAL SIZE.
21:30 UTCHAIL 0.5TaylorsvilleAlexander, NC
21:30 UTCHAIL 1TaylorsvilleAlexander, NC
22:12 UTCTSTM WND GST 604 N ClaremontCatawba, NCLARGE MAPLE LIMBS DOWN.
22:17 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ne HickoryCatawba, NCTREE ACROSS SULPHER SPRINGS RD
22:19 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 W HickoryCatawba, NCPOWER LINE SNAPPED 17TH ST NW
22:21 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 E ClaremontCatawba, NCLARGE OAK TREE BLOCKING OLD CATAWBA RD AND ANOTHER TREE FELL ON A VEHICLE.
22:22 UTCHAIL 0.88CatawbaCatawba, NC
22:28 UTCTSTM WND DMG4 E ClaremontCatawba, NCTREES BLOCKING ROAD NEAR HIGHWAY 70/OXFORD SCHOOL RD.

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of August 18, 2011

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 1810:15 AM EDTEF0New Hanover, NC0.320$3,000
August 185:23 PM CDTEF0Holt, NE0.020
August 185:46 PM CDTEF0Antelope, NE1.2100
August 185:48 PM CDTEF0Holt, NE0.450
August 186:40 PM MDTEF0Cherry, NE0.020

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.