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EF2 tornado in Jones County, North Carolina

Tornado May 11, 2008 · Jones County, North Carolina

EF2

Rating

5.0 mi

Whole path

100 yd

Path width

Injuries

$155K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Onslow County → Jones County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A tornado touched down near Belgrade in Onslow County and crossed into Jones county about 1 mile to the southeast of Belgrade. The tornado was rated as an EF2 and had a total path length of 5 miles. The tornado was about 100 yards wide. Most of the structural damage occurred in Onslow county...however numerous trees were sheared off in Jones county and a porch was destroyed at one residence.

The wider storm

Numerous thunderstorms developed near the coast of eastern North Carolina during the late afternoon and evening hours ahead of a cold front. Unstable air ahead of the cold front combined with strong wind shear to produce rotating thunderstorms and several tornadoes were reported near the south coast in parts of Onslow...Jones and Carteret counties.

Began near Maysville (34.8751, -77.2215).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

4 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Carteret County EF0 Onslow County EF0 Carteret County EF0 Carteret County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 108281. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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