EF0 tornado, Conetoe to Coakley, North Carolina, April 29, 2014

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

April 29, 2014

Touchdown

6:09 PM EDT (22:09 UTC)

Lifted

6:20 PM EDT (22:20 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

4.2 miles (6.7 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$25,000

County

Edgecombe County

Touchdown point

35.848, -77.434

Lift-off point

35.906, -77.415

Record number

1404291609-01

Thunderstorms developed during the afternoon just north and south of a well-defined warm front bisecting central North Carolina. Three weak short-lived tornadoes developed along the warm front across eastern North Carolina. Training thunderstorms also resulted in some flash flooding.

The tornado first touched down along State Road 1526 on the south side of highway 64 where numerous trees were downed or snapped. Intermittent damage continued along state road 1526 on the north side of Highway 64 where a large tree was uprooted and several outbuildings experienced roof damage. Intermittent tree damage continued northeast across State Road 1527. Numerous single wide homes and outbuildings received minor damage as the tornado continued northeast across Mooring Road. The tornado lifted at Highway 111 just east of the intersection with Mooring Road, where several single wide homes received minor damage and numerous trees were downed or snapped. The intermittent nature of damage indicates that the tornado may have briefly lifted a few times along the 4 mile path. The damage observed is consistent with maximum wind speeds of 70 to 80 mph.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS RAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:49 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:28 UTC and running to 02:40 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 19:54 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), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:11 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 2014 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

11 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.