Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 2021

EF1 tornado, Teacheys, North Carolina, June 2, 2021

This EF1 tornado ran 2.1 miles across Duplin County on June 2, 2021, touching down at 4:59 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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 mphthis tornado

    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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
June 2, 2021
Touchdown
4:59 PM EDT (20:59 UTC)
Lifted
5:07 PM EDT (21:07 UTC)
On the ground
8 minutes
Path length
2.1 miles (3.3 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Duplin County
Touchdown point
34.750, -78.031
Lift-off point
34.767, -78.002
Record number
2106021459-01

What the Weather Service recorded

The combination of a warm front and sea breeze moving across Eastern North Carolina led to numerous showers along with a few thunderstorms on the afternoon of June 2nd. One thunderstorm produced an EF1 tornado in Duplin County.

An EF-1 tornado touched down 1.8 miles SW of the town of|Teachey, NC over a small farm. A metal shed was destroyed before lofting and destroying|an unanchored trailer. Parts of metal roofs of multiple small farm outbuildings were also|peeled or torn off. One metal roof landed on an unoccupied vehicle. The tornado then|crossed over Cornwallis Rd where it snapped the trunks of three large pine trees and|toppled an unanchored shed. The tornado proceeded 1 mile or so over a field into an |inaccessible wooded area, potentially lifting, before dropping over the town of Teachey, |knocking down multiple trees before lifting over Ramsey St. Local emergency |management received multiple reports of this tornado being sighted in town.

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

The warnings

14 minutes of warning. NWS MHX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:45 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:45 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningMHX
21:14 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningMHX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:54 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 air that afternoon

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.

Newport, NC (KMHX), 12:00Z

9.0 hours before the tornado, 104 km from the path. June 2, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Newport, NC at 12:00Z on 2021-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 614 joules per kilogram, CIN -6, lifted condensation level 609 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Newport, NC at 12:00Z on 2021-06-02The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 58 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
614 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6 J/kg
Surface CAPE
182 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
609 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Newport, NC (KMHX), 00:00Z

3.0 hours after it, 104 km from the path. June 3, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Newport, NC at 00:00Z on 2021-06-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1565 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 559 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Newport, NC at 00:00Z on 2021-06-03The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 86 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1565 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2117 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
559 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
125 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:01 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:59 UTCTORNADO2 Wnw WallaceDuplin, NCDUPLIN COUNTY LAW ENFOREMENT REPORTED A TORNADO ON THE GROUND NEAR THE JUNCTION OF HIGHWAY 41 AND CORNWALLIS RD.
21:05 UTCTORNADOTeacheyDuplin, NCWIDESPREAD TREES DOWN BETWEEN TEACHEY AND WALLACE. TREE FELL ON TRACTOR TRAILER ON US 117. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of June 2, 2021

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 22:01 PM CDTEF0Mississippi, AR0.125
June 22:31 PM MDTEF0Mora, NM1.850
June 25:22 PM EDTEF0Columbus, NC0.735$200,000
June 29:04 PM EDTEF0Bladen, NC0.320

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.