EF2 tornado, Newtons Xrds to Harrells, North Carolina, August 7, 2024

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

August 7, 2024

Touchdown

2:09 PM EDT (18:09 UTC)

Lifted

2:20 PM EDT (18:20 UTC)

On the ground

11 minutes

Path length

4.7 miles (7.5 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

Counties

Pender and Sampson counties

Touchdown point

34.683, -78.147

Lift-off point

34.710, -78.220

Record number

2408071209-01

16 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ILM and NWS RAH, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.

• 1 tree snapped about 20 ft up and a few large branches snapped on adjacent trees. Proposed start point of Harrells tornado.
• Convergence in flattened corn
• Corn stalks flattened in convergence pattern
• Several snapped tree limbs on both sides of the roadway

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

Tropical Depression Debby slowly made its way through Florida, off the South Carolina coast, then back inland through the western Piedmont of North Carolina during the evening hours of 8 August 2024. Ahead of the storm, numerous feeder bands brought periods of heavy rain to central North Carolina, resulting in widespread 4-6 inch rainfall amounts across the western Piedmont, with higher amounts to the east. In addition, numerous tornadoes occurred with this event, with one on 7 August and an additional 6 on 8 August including a rare EF-3 tropical cyclone tornado.

A weak EF-0 tornado touched down in far northern Pender county before crossing into Sampson County along Willard Road. Multiple tree limbs and skinny hardwood trucks were found snapped as it crossed into a field where corn stalks were laid out in a wavy |convergent path. The tornado continued on the ground northwest to US-421 achieving EF-1 strength, causing minor roof damage to a one-story residence, snapping a softwood tree in addition to several small 1-3 inch branches. After traversing a vast canopy of thick tree coverage and little road access, it reemerged and crossed over Wildcat Road and Bland School Road where it strengthened into a low-end EF-2 and caused significant damage to multiple well constructed residences. The first was on the |western flank of the circulation and ripped off a portions of the tin roof and scattered personal belongings into the front yard in addition to snapping thick 1-2 foot branches from a large hardwood tree. The second house suffered multiple windows being blown in and likely was the initiating factor in blowing of 50% of a well attached roof and displacing it in the corn field behind the residence. The tornado continued for roughly another 0.5 miles through an open field and lifted before reaching Belvin Maynard |Road.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS ILM issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:02 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:15 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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:21 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 Wilmington radar (KLTX), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:10 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 2024 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.