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EF1 tornado in Nash County, North Carolina

Tornado May 13, 2019 · Nash County, North Carolina

EF1

Rating

17.2 mi

Whole path

385 yd

Path width

$1.2M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 385 yards (0.22 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 Tink's Place tornado continued into western Nash County and then crossed into Nash County, where damage was observed on Brantley Road. Most of the damage consisted of trees being snapped and uprooted, with structural damage to an open-air

farm outhouse. Just east on Massey Road, one newly constructed home suffered roof damage, with roof trusses severely damaged. Shingles had not been completed on the home yet, therefore this damage was considered EF-1 level. Also on Massey Road, a modular home suffered roof and wall damage, while two farm outhouses were severely damaged. The tornado then tracked east along Nade Road causing more uprooted and snapped trees. A home along Nade Road also lost its chimney with a cinderblock outhouse suffering complete roof failure.

Finally, the tornado began to weaken as it crossed the woods east of Hoyt Road, and it eventually lifted just east of Winters Road.

The wider storm

A southward moving cold front interacted with a rather unstable air mass for mid to late morning into the early afternoon across the area and allowed for the development of an isolated cluster of thunderstorms across the central Piedmont and central Coastal Plain of central North Carolina. The cluster of thunderstorms become severe and produced wind damage, very large hail and a EF-2 tornado as shortwave disturbance moved across the area allowing the convection to quickly intensify.

Began near Middlesex (35.8281, -78.2524).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 826537. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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