EF1 tornado, Hope Vly, North Carolina, May 15, 2014

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

May 15, 2014

Touchdown

6:10 PM EDT (22:10 UTC)

Lifted

6:13 PM EDT (22:13 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.8 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$250,000

County

Durham County

Touchdown point

35.954, -78.935

Lift-off point

35.965, -78.936

Record number

1405151610-01

Scattered convection impacted central North Carolina as a deep upper level trough and associated strong surface cold front approached and crossed the area. Strong moisture transport resulted in above normal precipitable water values and this, combined with the ultimate training of the storms, lead to flash flooding as many areas received 2-4 inches of rain, with isolated amounts up to 5-6 inches. In addition, some isolated wind damage occurred and as a secondary area of low pressure developed and tracked along the front, an isolated tornado formed. This EF1 tornado uprooted numerous trees, causing substantial property damage near Durham, North Carolina.

A storm survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado near Durham. Damage consisted of dozens of snapped and uprooted trees and approximately 40 homes that experienced roof or other structural damage. Most of the damage to the homes was caused by falling trees and other debris. However, there were at least a half a dozen homes that experienced minor roof damage solely from the wind. In one case, a large oak tree was uprooted and fell onto a home, slicing through the roof and an exterior wall.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS RAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:06 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 15:56 UTC and running to 00:00 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:09 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

4 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.