EF2 tornado in Bertie County, North Carolina

Tornado April 16, 2011 · Bertie County, North Carolina

EF2

Rating

35.4 mi

Whole path

500 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$4.3M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 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

A distinct separation in the damage paths northwest of Colerain suggested that a second tornado formed just northwest of Colerain and tracked northeast nearly parallel to the original tornado. North of Colerain, the tornado tracked parallel to Route 45 for about 1 mile then continued northeast into southeast Hertford county just west of the Chowan River. In the Bertie county portion of the tornado, several homes and other buildings were damaged. Poultry houses and other farm equipment were also damaged. Many trees were downed or snapped off.

The wider storm

Scattered severe thunderstorms in advance of a cold front produced damaging winds, large hail, and several tornadoes across portions of northeast North Carolina.

Began near Colerain (36.2102, -76.7827).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Northampton County EF1 Currituck County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 305351. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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