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EF2 tornado in Harnett County, North Carolina

Tornado April 16, 2011 · Harnett County, North Carolina

EF2
Rating
23.8 mi
Whole path
800 yd
Path width
1
Death
91
Injuries
$41.0M
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 800 yards (0.45 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 exited Cumberland County and entered Harnett County just south of Dunn. EF1 damage was common in the Dunn area, with areas of EF2 damage with wind speeds up to 130 mph. Mobile homes were completely wiped off of their foundations and trees were debarked. A second fatality occurred here when a 42 year-old Hispanic male died from injuries suffered from the tornado. The victim's body was found lying on a concrete slab, thrown from a mobile home that was destroyed. Several other residents in the mobile home park were injured, including one that was ejected from a trailer and impaled with an object, with another person trapped underneath debris. In total, 200 homes and businesses were damaged, with 40 home destroyed and another 40 homes having major damage.

The wider storm

A strong storm system that had a history of producing deadly tornadoes across Oklahoma and the deep south on the 14th and 15th weakened as it crossed the southern Appalachians during the early morning hours of the 16th. A squall line descended the Blue Ridge by the late morning hours, and rapidly intensified

as it moved east into the central Piedmont of North Carolina, with four long live tornadic supercells evolving from the linear convective segment. These tornadic supercells went on to produce 9 tornadoes in the Raleigh CWA, including 2 EF3s, and 4 EF2s. The tornadoes left 8 dead with approximately 275 injuries.

Began near Erwin Arpt (35.2543, -78.6720).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

9 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 297552. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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