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EF3 tornado in Edgecombe County, North Carolina

Tornado July 19, 2023 · Edgecombe County, North Carolina

EF3
Rating
13.5 mi
Whole path
600 yd
Path width
16
Injuries
$300.2M
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

The tornado then weakened slightly as it crossed into Edgecombe County causing damage to a metal structure before lifting 9 miles east-northeast of Battleboro, NC.

The wider storm

An old thunderstorm complex moving across the area from the prior evening of the 18th entered a more favorable environment by midday and developed a tornado that tracked several miles over the northern Coastal Plain of central NC. Numerous reports of damage to trees and structures confirmed the tornado as it moved from near Nashville, North Carolina to near Battleboro, North Carolina, Continuing northeast to Scotland Neck. The Tornado produced EF3 damage, with up to 150 mph. Additionally, a boundary over the Sandhills to southern Coastal Plain brought several reports of downed trees and powerlines, along with isolated flash flooding in Cumberland County.

Began near Battleboro (36.0359, -77.7567).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1128944. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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