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EF3 tornado in Bertie County, North Carolina

Tornado August 4, 2020 · Bertie County, North Carolina

EF3
Rating
10.0 mi
Path length
600 yd
Path width
2
Deaths
14
Injuries
$1.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 damage survey conducted by the NWS Wakefield office found a path of storm damage consistent with an EF3 tornado. The tornado touched down near the intersection of Knowles Lane and Middle Track Road. It then tracked to the north northwest and reached its strongest point just south of the town of Woodard as it crossed Morning Road, where its width increased to just over one third of a mile and it reached EF3 intensity. The tornado completely destroyed several mobile homes and stick built houses in this area. It flattened seven single-wide and double-wide mobile homes, leaving unrecognizable bits of debris. The fatalities and injuries occurred in the vicinity of Morning Road. The tornado weakened to EF1 intensity as it approached the west side of the town of Windsor, but it did damage a farm on Highway 306. The tornado then lifted just before reaching Governors Road about 2 miles northwest of Windsor.

The wider storm

The center of Tropical Storm Isaias tracked north just inland of the Middle Atlantic Coast from late Monday night, August 3rd through Tuesday morning, August 4th. Outer bands north and east of the Tropical Storm produced three tornadoes across portions of northeast North Carolina.

Began near Woodard (35.8870, -76.8900).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 913350. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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