EF3 tornado, Woodard to Windsor, North Carolina, August 3, 2020

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

August 3, 2020

Touchdown

1:15 AM EDT (05:15 UTC)

Lifted

1:26 AM EDT (05:26 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

10.0 miles (16.1 km)

Path width

600 yards (549 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

14

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Bertie County

Touchdown point

35.887, -76.890

Lift-off point

36.014, -76.977

Record number

2008032315-01

The center of Tropical Storm Isaias tracked north just inland of the Middle Atlantic Coast from late Monday night, August 3rd through Tuesday morning, August 4th. Outer bands north and east of the Tropical Storm produced three tornadoes across portions of northeast North Carolina.

A damage survey conducted by the NWS Wakefield office found a path of storm damage consistent with an EF3 tornado. The tornado touched down near the intersection of Knowles Lane and Middle Track Road. It then tracked to the north northwest and reached its strongest point just south of the town of Woodard as it crossed Morning Road, where its width increased to just over one third of a mile and it reached EF3 intensity. The tornado completely destroyed several mobile homes and stick built houses in this area. It flattened seven single-wide and double-wide mobile homes, leaving unrecognizable bits of debris. The fatalities and injuries occurred in the vicinity of Morning Road. The tornado weakened to EF1 intensity as it approached the west side of the town of Windsor, but it did damage a farm on Highway 306. The tornado then lifted just before reaching Governors Road about 2 miles northwest of Windsor.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS AKQ issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:09 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:49 UTC and running to 09:42 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 00:59 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 Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:12 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 2020 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.