Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina

2022 tornadoes in North Carolina

19 tornadoes touched down in North Carolina in 2022, about the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2021 2023 The whole country in 2022

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.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

Every tornado in North Carolina in 2022

January 3 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
January 3	7:21 AM EST	EF0	Harnett	0.8	75			$100,000
January 3	7:36 AM EST	EF1	Sampson	0.1	75			$1.5 million

March 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 23	10:59 PM EDT	EF1	Alexander	6.2	150			$25,000

March 31 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 31	1:22 PM EDT	EF2	Anson	7.2	200			$600,000
March 31	3:49 PM EDT	EF1	Durham	0.2	100			$100,000

May 6 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 6	5:00 PM EDT	EF1	Swain	0.5	50	$30,000
May 6	5:08 PM EDT	EF1	Orange	3.5	400	$250,000
May 6	7:41 PM EDT	EF1	Rockingham	7.9	300	$700,000

May 16 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 16	8:20 PM EDT	EF1	Craven	0.1	80

May 23 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 23	1:36 PM EDT	EF1	Mecklenburg	9.8	100			$30,000
May 23	4:07 PM EDT	EF0	Durham	1.5	100			$150,000

May 26 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
May 26	4:13 PM EDT	EF0	Cleveland	0.2	25
May 26	4:23 PM EDT	EF0	Cleveland	0.0	25
May 26	6:59 PM EDT	EF2	Iredell	6.0	150	1	$30,000
May 26	7:13 PM EDT	EF1	Yadkin	1.5	100		$15,000
May 26	9:03 PM EDT	EF1	Surry	2.8	100		$11,000

June 17 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 17	8:06 PM EDT	EF0	Robeson	0.7	30

September 30 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 30	12:25 PM EDT	EF0	Brunswick	0.7	20
September 30	3:22 PM EDT	Unrated	Beaufort	0.7	12

Nearby

Every tornado in North Carolina since 1950 Warnings in force in North Carolina The live radar over North Carolina

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.