Severe Weather November 14-15

Severe thunderstorms affected portions of the Eastern Carolinas late Friday night. There have been two confirmed tornadoes within the News13 viewing area. Fortunately, there were no deaths from the storms. However, stronger storms affected portions of North Carolina, near Raleigh. There are two that died as a result of the overnight storms.

The way that meteorologists determine if an actual tornado occurred, especially when it is dark and people aren't able to see it is by taking damage estimates after the storm has passed. From there, National Weather Service meteorologists can conclude if tornado or straight-line winds are the source of the damage. But what does this mean? Straight-line damage means that there was no evidence of rotation. This can be determined judging from the damage path of the storm. If all the trees seem to be laying in the same way, it’s likely that it was not a tornado. Straight-line winds are often caused by either damaging winds ahead of a storm system or microbursts within the storm. A microburst would be strong winds coming straight down- they can either be wet or dry- and don’t have any evidence of rotation. If trees are laying in different directions or seem to be completely shredded, they may determine that it was a weak tornado.

One important thing to remember, both can cause significang damage. And whenever there’s damage, it’s pretty irrelevant to people if it was straight-line or tornado damage.

To find out more about the storms in the Eastern Carolinas, I called the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, which is responsible for Florence, Myrtle Beach, and Lumberton. I just got off the phone with Mark Bacon, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.

The National Weather Service has determined that a tornado did touchdown 3 miles E of Dillon, where one mobile home and two brick homes were totally destroyed. They were unable to get a damage team out there before dark, but did make the determination after discussions with the Dillon Emergency Manager.

Here is what is written on the Storm Prediction Center’s website and credited to the Wilmington NWS.

ONE MOBILE HOME AND TWO BRICK HOMES WERE TOTALLY DESTROYED BY A TORNADO. THE MAGNITUDE OF THE TORNADO IS UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME. (ILM)

A damage crew did make it to Saint Pauls in Robeson county, just up 95 from Lumberton. They determined that an EF-0 Tornado touched down with winds estimated of 80 mph. I will copy their public information statement below.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HEADQUARTERS WASHINGTON DC
1135 AM EST SAT NOV 15 2008

...NWS STORM SURVEY FINDS TORNADO DAMAGE NEAR ST. PAULS NC...

A NWS STORM SURVEY DETERMINED THAT AN EF-0 TORNADO (80 MPH) OCCURRED
JUST EAST OF ST. PAULS NC. THE PATH LENGTH WAS APPROXIMATELY 1.1
MILES AND THE MAXIMUM PATH WIDTH WAS 40 YARDS. ESTIMATED DAMAGE
AMOUNT UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME.

SPECIFICALLY THE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR MOBILE HOMES JUST
NORTHEAST OF LESTER ROAD AROUND 135 AM EST SATURDAY NOVEMBER 15TH.
THERE WAS SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO 1 MOBILE HOME IN THIS LOCATION ALONG
WITH SOME TREES DOWN. THE TORNADO TRACKED NORTH NORTHEAST CROSSING
HIGHWAY 20 NEAR RALPH`S AUTO REPAIR. ALL OF THE BAY DOORS WERE BLOWN
OUT AT THE AUTO REPAIR SHOP. IN ADDITION...THERE WERE 17 STORAGE
BUILDINGS ON THE REPAIR SHOP PROPERTY THAT WERE DESTROYED ALONG WITH
DAMAGE TO 4 VEHICLES...A TOW TRUCK...AND A TRACTOR TRAILER. THE
TORNADO CONTINUED TO MOVE NORTH NORTHEAST KNOCKING TREES DOWN ACROSS
THE RAILROAD TRACKS NORTH OF HIGHWAY 20...AND CAUSING MODERATE
DAMAGE TO ANOTHER MOBILE HOME ALONG BRITT ROAD. THE TORNADO FINALLY
DISSIPATED JUST NORTH OF BRITT ROAD.

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