EF1 Tornado — Orange, North Carolina

2025-07-06 · near Miles, Orange, North Carolina

Event narrative

A tornado touched down on the northern end of Royal Oak Lane, just north of Lake Michael and slowly drifted to the south about a quarter mile before lifting. During this brief time on the ground, considerable tree damage was done, with dozens of trees snapped and uprooted.

Wider weather episode

Tropical Storm Chantal made landfall over northeastern South Carolina during the morning hours of July 6. The remnants of Chantal then tracked west-northwest into portions of central North Carolina, stalling out over the area before tracking east-northeast into Virginia by the 7th of July. Catastrophic flash flooding occurred from record rainfall of up to 11 inches in some spots of the Piedmont, included 6 flash flood fatalities across Chatham, Alamance, and Orange Counties. Widespread flooding particularly affected the counties of Orange, Chatman, and Moore. Four EF-1 tornadoes also touched down over portions Lee, Chatham, Alamance, and Orange Counties. Preliminary loss estimates across central North Carolina exceeded 40 million.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.1200, -79.2400)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1277014. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.