EF1 tornado in Craven County, North Carolina

A tornado touched down along Highway 17 near Ernul, near the intersection

of Gaskins Road. A narrow path of damage consisting of one large pine tree snapped

about 40 feet high, and another uprooted, was found near the train tracks.

The damage path continued northeast and produced some minor damage to an outbuilding with some minor shingle loss. Aged shingles likely led to some of the damage but at this location there was clear evidence of some damage blown back toward the southwest or opposite of the storm motion. Farther north along Highway 17, just north of the intersection of Askin Brick Road, two more pine trees were snapped and fell across the power lines. Some of this western edge of the path may have been

inflow, into the storm, as the actual path width was very narrow.

A sporadic damage path continued northeast across Aurora Road, where more

pine trees were snapped, 10 to 40 feet up from the base. Some minor damage

occured to a house where a handful of shingles were removed. Some metal from

a roof was also peeled off a farm outbuilding, where it had been previously

attached to an asphalt shingle roof. From the start near Highway 17, through Aurora

Road, this sporadic path produced estimated winds between 60 and 80 MPH or

consistent with EF0 damage.

The sporadic path continued northeast to Hill Neck Road, where the most

impressive damage occurred. Multiple trees were snapped, with two large,

healthy pine trees, at least 27 in diameter snapped near the base or up

to 15 feet off the ground. Here we estimated wind speeds near 90 MPH or consistent

with low end EF1 damage. The path continued northeast across the road into a field

where more trees were snapped. The end point was estimated because of limited

access in the forest.

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.