EF0 tornado in Carteret County, North Carolina

An EF0 tornado touched down near Soundview Lane, and likely came onshore

as a waterspout off Back Sound. The tornado traveled quickly northeast,

and lifted some shingles off multiple houses, and a storage shed. Part of

a roof of a shed was blown about 50 feet away.

A large live oak tree, estimated by witnesses to be around 100 years old,

was uprooted just before the path crossed Island Road. Near the location of the

tree, the skirting of a mobile home was blown back toward the south,

an indication of rotation given this was opposite of the storm motion and

damage path.

The path continued across Island Road and produced extensive tree damage. In

addition, a house lost a major section of roofing. The tornado lifted quickly

with no more damage found farther beyond the houses right along Island Road.

From the location of the uprooted tree, to just across Island Road, winds were

estimated to be around 85 MPH or a high end EF0 tornado.

Late on the evening of January 9, 2024, a strong cold front moved east across the Carolinas, and was accompanied by a line of severe thunderstorms. A period of strong southerly winds (not associated with thunderstorms) developed ahead of the cold front, followed by widespread strong to damaging winds associated with the line of thunderstorms. These thunderstorms produced wind gusts as high as 100 mph, caused tree and structure damage, and spawned multiple tornadoes. Since 1950, only one other time in Eastern North Carolina history has a storm system produced 3, or more, tornadoes in one event during the winter months (Dec, Jan, Feb). The last time was February 18, 2008. The strong onshore winds also led to coastal flooding, especially across the Outer Banks from Ocracoke north. In all, over 60 reports of severe weather or coastal flooding were received, and over 20 Severe Thunderstorm and several Tornado Warnings were issued. This event will go down as one of the more notable winter season severe weather events for Eastern North Carolina.