EF0 tornado, Piney Grove to Leland, North Carolina, August 3, 2020

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

August 3, 2020

Touchdown

8:15 PM EDT (00:15 UTC)

Lifted

8:17 PM EDT (00:17 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.6 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1,000

County

Brunswick County

Touchdown point

34.040, -78.141

Lift-off point

34.057, -78.161

Record number

2008031815-02

33 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILM, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.

• Observed waterspout over the Cape Fear River moved onshore at this area in Southport causing some uprooted trees and minor house damage.
• Shed damaged with some shingles off the roof of a nearby business. Roof damaged at another business nearby. Some home damage on Yacht Basin Drive.
• Nearby dock damage. Large limbs down and large tree uprooted.
• trees down on garage, large branches down. Multiple large trees down.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Hurricane Isaias came off the African coast as a tropical wave on July 23, 2020. It became Tropical Storm Isaias on July 30th, further strengthening to a hurricane on the 31st. After crossing the Bahamas, it weakened to a tropical storm. Isaias strengthened again to a hurricane as it approached the coast of North Carolina. Hurricane Isaias made landfall at Ocean Isle Beach as a strong Category 1 around 11 pm on August 3rd, with an 87 mph recorded gust. It pushed inland to Goldsboro NC, where it weakened and accelerated northward. ||The hurricane spawned seven tornadoes, ranging from EF-0 to EF-2. Most of the tornadoes occurred in Brunswick County.||Rainfall was heaviest along the coast of Georgetown County, topping out at nearly seven inches. Most areas along the coast of North and South Carolina received around three to four inches on average, with lesser amounts inland. The Wilmington ASOS reported a gust to 74 mph. Storm surge was significant in Brunswick County, where many docks were damage, and homes and businesses were inundated with three feet of water. Downtown Wilmington also received a record surge that came up the Cape Fear River. Over 80,000 residences lost power in New Hanover county, with widespread outages along the coast of Pender County, as they were in the eastern eyewall. Total damage was at least 300 million dollars.

Weak tornado impacted a small area near Law Road |SE and Old Ocean Highway East near the Brunswick |County Government Complex. The tornado mainly |caused damage to trees and lifted after crossing |Old Ocean Highway East.

The tornado touched down along Green Swamp Road and snapped|approximately 20 large pine trees on the west side, up to|20 inches in diameter. A lower degree of tree damage was |observed on the east side of the road. It is suspected that |additional damage extended further into the Green Swamp, |however the area was inaccessible.

Weak tornado impacted a small area near Law Road |SE and Old Ocean Highway East near the Brunswick |County Government Complex. The tornado mainly |caused damage to trees and lifted after crossing |Ocean Highway East (Highway 17).

A tornado associated with Hurricane Isaias appeared to touch down |near the intersection of Andrew Jackson Highway (Highway 74) and |Ocean Highway East (Highway 17). This was characterized by a few |snapped pine trees. Additional trees were snapped along the path |near Old Fayetteville Road, Wayne Street NE, Village Road NE, and |Old Mill Road NE, although tree damage was spotty in nature.

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

26 minutes of warning. NWS ILM issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:49 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:44 UTC and running to 04:50 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 19:55 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.

Southport/Brunswick (SUT), 15 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:15 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.