EF0 tornado, Black Creek to Stantonsburg, North Carolina, August 6, 2011

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

August 6, 2011

Touchdown

11:25 AM EDT (15:25 UTC)

Lifted

11:30 AM EDT (15:30 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.5 miles (4.1 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Wilson County

Touchdown point

35.590, -77.920

Lift-off point

35.590, -77.875

Record number

1108060925-01

A very moist air mass was in place in the morning of the 6th as a band of convection in association with an MCV moved north over the area. Heavy rainfall of 3 to 4 inches fell over the central Piedmont, causing flash flooding in Wake and Nash Counties. By mid morning, a previously stall frontal zone lifted north over the area. As the MCV continued to move east, new convection developed and tracked northeastward, paralleling the surface front and weak surface low. A weak EF-0 and moved east for approximately 3 miles across southern Wilson County, where it caused minor damage to homes and a turkey farm.

The National Weather Service in Raleigh NC confirmed a tornado in far southern Wilson County near Black Creek on August 6, 2011. Damage was first observed just west of Frank Price Church Road where a mobile home and barn were damaged and several trees were downed. The touchdown time was estimated at 1125 AM EDT. Several other trees were downed along Jaycross Road between Frank Price Road and Pelt Road. Four turkey houses on Pelt Road were damaged with one turkey house virtually destroyed. Debris was blown 300-400 yards to the east. The tornado appeared to weaken in a wooded area east of Pelt Road at approximately 1130 AM EDT. A total of 7 mobile homes had damage with most of the damage minor in nature. The owners of the turkey farmer did not want to disclose any information so the monetary damages were estimated.

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

9 minutes of warning. NWS RAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:16 UTC, 9 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:00 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 12:55 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 Raleigh/Durham radar (KRAX), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 15:22 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

1 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.