Monday, April 18, 2011

Raleigh Tornado Rated EF-3

April 19 Update: The National Weather Service has posted a preliminary track map of the 26 tornadoes in North Carolina on April 16:
The breakdown by intensity, shown on the map, includes 5 tornadoes at EF-3, including the large storm which passed through Raleigh.


Images (click to enlarge): Map of over 240 tornado reports in the 3 days April 14-16, from New York Times; Composite radar image shows multiple severe storms covering much of central North Carolina (including path of Sanford/Raleigh tornado) on April 16, from WRAL-TV (h/t Sarah Scolnik)

Midnight Update: The New York Times reports ("Experts Busy Assessing Ferocity of Storms") that the NWS is estimating "that North Carolina was hit by 15 to 20 tornadoes on Saturday — about the average number the state had in an entire year."

The Raleigh News Observer has a review of the tornado outbreak in Tuesday's edition (Piecing together a deadly weather day) plus photo galleries with hundreds of images locally and statewide across North Carolina.

See here for an interactive map of storm damage photos in the city of Raleigh.

Original post:
A preliminary analysis posted this afternoon by the National Weather Service rates the large tornado which moved through Raleigh, NC on Saturday afternoon, April 16, at EF-3 on the revised Fujita scale:
LOCATION...SANFORD...BROADWAY...HOLLY SPRINGS AND RALEIGH IN LEE AND
WAKE COUNTIES COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA
DATE...APRIL 16, 2011
ESTIMATED TIME...253 PM EDT
MAXIMUM EF-SCALE RATING...EF3
ESTIMATED MAXIMUM WIND SPEED...160 MPH
MAXIMUM PATH WIDTH....0.3 MILES
MILES PATH LENGTH...APPROXIMATELY 63 MILES
BEGINNING LAT/LON...35.34N / 79.31W
ENDING LAT/LON...35.93N / 78.46W
* FATALITIES...5
* INJURIES...TOTAL NUMBER UNKNOWN
At its peak,
CONTINUING NORTHEAST ALONG CAMERON DRIVE...THE UPPER FLOOR WAS
BLOWN OFF TWO APARTMENT BUILDINGS. THE TORNADO THEN ENTERED AN
INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX ALONG INDUSTRIAL DR WHERE IT MULTIPLE STEEL
CONSTRUCTED RETAIL BUILDINGS WERE DESTROYED IN ADDITION TO AT
LEAST THREE LARGE WAREHOUSES AT THE STATIC CONTROL FACILITY. WINDS
IN THIS AREA LIKELY EXCEEDED 160 MPH. THE TORNADO THEN DESTROYED
THE TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY... BIG LOTS... AND LOWES HOME
IMPROVEMENT STORE ALONG HIGHWAY 421. WINDS IN THIS AREA WERE
ESTIMATED AROUND 140 MPH. TWO HOMES WERE BLOWN OFF THEIR
FOUNDATIONS ALONG RICE RD NORTH OF HIGHWAY 42. A FATALITY OCCURRED
ALONG POPLAR SPRING CHURCH ROAD IN A MOBILE HOME. THE TORNADO
CONTINUED NORTHEAST ALONG AVENT FERRY ROAD CROSSING INTO CHATHAM
COUNTY JUST EAST OF HARRIS LAKE.
The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore twitches that this may have been the largest tornado outbreak in North Carolina history.

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