EF0 tornado, (Gww)Goldsboro-Wayne, North Carolina, September 17, 2018

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

September 17, 2018

Touchdown

3:55 AM EDT (07:55 UTC)

Lifted

3:57 AM EDT (07:57 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.4 miles (0.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Wayne County

Touchdown point

35.471, -77.952

Lift-off point

35.476, -77.953

Record number

1809170155-01

A ridge of high pressure over eastern North America stalled Florence's forward motion a few miles off the southeast North Carolina coast on September 13th. Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wrightsville Beach early on Saturday September 15, and weakened further as it moved slowly inland. Despite making landfall as a weakened|Category 1 hurricane, Florence still produced 40 to 70 mph wind gusts, enough wind speed to uproot trees and cause widespread power outages throughout the Carolinas. As the storm moved inland, from September 15 to 17, heavy rain of 10 to 25 inches caused widespread inland flooding, inundating cities such as Fayetteville, Smithfield, Goldsboro, Durham, and Chapel Hill, and causing major river flooding on main-stem rivers such as the Neuse, Cape Fear, and Little River. Most major roads and highways in the area experienced some flooding, with large stretches of I-40 and I-95 remaining impassable for days after the storm had passed. The storm also spawned tornadoes in several places along its path. There were 3 direct and 6 indirect deaths attributed to the storm with in the WFO RAH CWA.

A short lived and weak tornado associated with Florence touched down in the pre-dawn hours just east of the Wayne Executive Jetport runway. The tornado was only on the ground for a short amount of time, but did cause some minor structural damage |to a home and destroyed several outbuildings before lifting. Property damages were estimated.

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

2 minutes of warning. NWS RAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:53 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:18 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 06:05 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), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:57 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 2018 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.