EF2 tornado, Knightdale Wndll Arp to Mt Pleasant, North Carolina, May 13, 2019

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

May 13, 2019

Touchdown

10:13 AM EDT (14:13 UTC)

Lifted

10:39 AM EDT (14:39 UTC)

On the ground

26 minutes

Path length

17.2 miles (27.6 km)

Path width

385 yards (352 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.3 million

Counties

Wake and Nash counties

Touchdown point

35.828, -78.440

Lift-off point

35.830, -78.128

Record number

1905130813-01

A southward moving cold front interacted with a rather unstable air mass for mid to late morning into the early afternoon across the area and allowed for the development of an isolated cluster of thunderstorms across the central Piedmont and central Coastal Plain of central North Carolina. The cluster of thunderstorms become severe and produced wind damage, very large hail and a EF-2 tornado as shortwave disturbance moved across the area allowing the convection to quickly intensify.

The tornado initially touched down just west of Rolesville Road |near Tink's Place in eastern Wake County. The tornado initially |produced widespread EF-1 damage with sporadic EF-2 damage noted on |Weathers Road. Along the path to Weathers Road, numerous trees |were either uprooted or snapped and mangled together, consistent |with EF-1 damage. | |At Weathers Road, structural damage was noted as a single family |home had its exterior walls collapsed. Several metal farm |buildings were also completely destroyed and strewn about a field. |Sheet metal was wrapped around a nearby tree. An RV was flipped |over numerous times landing crushed in an open field. In |addition, another home had the windows blown out with roof damage. |It was in this area that EF-2 damage was determined. | |The tornado continued tracking east and crossed Edgemont Road just |north of HWY 264/64, then crossing HWY 264/64 where numerous trees |were downed and snapped. Generally EF-1 damage was noted here. | |The tornado then moved east into Zebulon along and near Highway |97 (West Gannon Avenue) where numerous trees snapped and uprooted. |It continued east of Zebulon, crossing HWY 264/64 again, and going |just north of the Five County Stadium. Generally EF-0 and EF-1 |damage was noted here.

The Tink's Place tornado continued into western Nash County and then crossed into Nash County, where damage was observed on Brantley Road. Most of the damage consisted of trees being snapped and uprooted, with structural damage to an open-air |farm outhouse. Just east on Massey Road, one newly constructed home suffered roof damage, with roof trusses severely damaged. Shingles had not been completed on the home yet, therefore this damage was considered EF-1 level. Also on Massey Road, a modular home suffered roof and wall damage, while two farm outhouses were severely damaged. The tornado then tracked east along Nade Road causing more uprooted and snapped trees. A home along Nade Road also lost its chimney with a cinderblock outhouse suffering complete roof failure. | |Finally, the tornado began to weaken as it crossed the woods east of Hoyt Road, and it eventually lifted just east of Winters Road.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS RAH issued a tornado warning for this county at 14:13 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 14:31 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 14:47 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.

Louisburg/Franklin_cnty_arpt (LHZ), 22 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

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 2019 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

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.