EF3 Sunset Beach tornado, North Carolina, February 15, 2021

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

February 15, 2021

Touchdown

11:34 PM EST (04:34 UTC)

Lifted

12:02 AM EST (05:02 UTC)

On the ground

28 minutes

Path length

21.9 miles (35.2 km)

Path width

275 yards (251 m)

Deaths

3

Injuries

10

County

Brunswick County

Touchdown point

33.912, -78.510

Lift-off point

34.177, -78.301

Record number

2102152234-01

30 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILM, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 160 mph.

• Numerous over turned RVs and trailers. Major damage to storage buildings in the area.
• Tornado formed near this location. A few trees uprooted. A couple snapped but they were diseased
• Community garden center which was poorly constructed with no connection to the foundation. Structure slid off it's foundation and was blown away as a result. Numerous large pines snapped at this location. Minor home damage on periphery of the area on the west side of this structure.
• Numerous large trees snapped. Debris blown into homes.

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

Strong low pressure and a cold front produced an EF-3 tornado.

The tornado touched down near the intersection of Old Georgetown Road SW and Angel Trace Road as an EF-0, where a couple of pine trees were snapped and several large limbs were broken. It moved to the northeast across a forest, then rapidly intensified to an EF-2 as it approached Hwy 904. A large portion of a roof was blown off a metal building on the west side of 904, several RVs were rolled over, and several large pine trees were snapped. The tornado crossed Hwy 904, snapped numerous trees and caused moderate damage to a large metal building and church.||The tornado entered the Ocean Ridge Plantation neighborhood with wind speeds up to 125 mph. Hundreds of trees were snapped, and many homes sustained minor to moderate damage. It crossed Rosebury Court SW, then strengthened to its maximum intensity of 160 mph (EF-3), as it approached Cambria Court SW. Two homes were completely destroyed in this area, and several more sustained moderate to major damage. The tornado reached its maximum path width of 275 yards as it moved across Windsor Circle, although maximum winds decreased to 115 mph (EF2). Many homes sustained moderate to major damage, hundreds of large trees were snapped, and one automobile was observed rolled on its side.||It crossed Hwy 17 as an EF-1, then re-intensified to an EF-2, causing major damage to several homes and snapping hundreds of trees along Green Bay Road NW and Old Shallote Road NW. The tornado continued to produce a near continuous path of tree damage through forest and swamp land, across Hwy 130 and Highway 211, confirmed by helicopter overflight. The tornado lifted approximately three miles east of highway 211 after passing west of the Bear Pen Airstrip.

The deaths

3 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.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 00:36 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), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 7 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:36 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 2021 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

5 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.