EF0 tornado in Dare County, North Carolina

The Hatteras Island Rescue and National Weather Service in Newport/Morehead City NC have confirmed a weak tornado briefly touched down at the Hatteras Sands RV resort near Hatteras Village in Dare County, North Carolina, around 1:02 am EDT on September 3rd, 2016. The EF0 tornado had winds estimated at 80 mph, a path width of 25 yards and path length of 100 yards. The tornado damaged or destroyed approximately 5 travel trailers and camping cabins, some which were not attached to the ground. Three injuries were reported from this tornado.

Hurricane Hermine made landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida during the early morning hours on September 2nd, and moved northeast along the Southeastern United States states on the 2nd. Hermine weakened slightly to Tropical Storm strength and crossed through Eastern North Carolina during the late evening on September 2nd, and exited off the North Carolina coast near Duck during the morning of September 3rd. The lowest pressure of 994.3 mb was measured on 03/0629 UTC at a mesonet site located at Fort Macon in Carteret county. Highest official winds were measured at the Duck tide gauge DUKN7 where sustained speeds of 71 mph with gusts to 84 mph occurred between 1447 and 1454 UTC on the 3rd. These strong winds led to sporadic power outages across eastern North Carolina. Official Storm surge flooding of 2 to 4 feet above ground level occurred along much of the coast. The highest surge of 3 to 4 feet was observed on the sound side of the Outer Banks on the morning of the 3rd as strong north winds developed on the backside of Hermine as it passed offshore. Preliminary damage from storm surge was estimated at 5.5 million dollars with the vast majority of this occurring across Outer Banks Dare County. Rain-bands associated with Hermine produced two EF1 tornadoes and one EF0 tornado that led to around 30 thousand in property damage. Bands of heavy rain associated with Hermine produced rainfall totals of 4 to 8 inches over most of the region, with the highest amounts near the coast. This heavy rain produced widespread poor drainage flooding with a few reports of flash flooding.