EF0 tornado, Genoa, North Carolina, September 5, 2019

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 5, 2019

Touchdown

1:52 PM EDT (17:52 UTC)

Lifted

1:53 PM EDT (17:53 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

125 yards (114 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Wayne County

Touchdown point

35.335, -78.065

Lift-off point

35.326, -78.067

Record number

1909051152-01

Hurricane Dorian moved north and northeastward near and along the coast of North Carolina on September 5th and 6th, with Dorian making landfall along the Outer Banks of North Carolina during the morning of September 6th. Meanwhile, heavy rain and strong damaging winds spread inland and across eastern central North Carolina. Heavy rainfall of 3 to 7 inches produced flash flooding across portions of the Coastal Plain of central North Carolina, generally along and east of the Interstate 95 corridor. Strong damaging winds of 35 to 55 mph spread inland across the Coastal Plain and eastern Sandhills of central North Carolina. This resulted in numerous power outages and trees down in these locations. Several weak tornadoes occurred during the afternoon of September 5th as multiple rain bands shifted eastward and into central North Carolina during peak heating.

An EF-0 tornado briefly touched down in Mar-Mac, Wayne County, North |Carolina. The impacts consisted of shingle and siding damage to several homes, numerous large hardwood trees that were uprooted, a trailer that was rolled over, |and a pickup truck that was tossed several yards. This tornado occurred |in an outer rain band associated with Hurricane Dorian.

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 17:52 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:08 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 11:30 UTC and running to 22:41 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 16:39 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.

Seymour-Johnson_afb (GSB), 10 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Raleigh/Durham radar (KRAX), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:49 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 2019 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

24 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.