High Wind — Northern Craven, North Carolina

2024-01-09 · Northern Craven, North Carolina

Event narrative

The peak gust was measured at New Bern Airport, though gusts above 50 knots were common around New Bern were common for several hours.

Wider weather episode

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.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1161173. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.