Saturday's tornadoes that ravaged central North Carolina was the state's largest outbreak since the Red Springs tornado of 1984.
BREAKDOWN OF SATURDAY'S TORNADOS AND STORMS:
Yesterday in the NBC-17 viewing area, there were 61 reports of tornadoes. The National Weather Service is heading out to look at the paths of destruction and will determine over the next week or so how many actual tornadoes formed.
Unofficially, I counted at least 7 sets of tornadoes.
The first tornado was reported in Person county at 2:40pm The area around Bethel Hill to Concord reported damage.
At 3:03 a tornado was reported in Lee county, affecting Sanford, Tramway, Broadway, and moving into the extreme southeastern part of Chatham county at 3:25. This tornado while near Broadway destroyed the Lowe's store, and also 2 fatalities were reported.
In Holly Springs at 3:35 a tornado was reported. It will be interesting to see if it was indeed a continuation of the Lee county tornado. After Holly Springs the tornado moved right over downtown Raleigh producing major damage. In the Stoneybrook Mobile Home park, 3 people lost their lives. The last report of this tornado was at 4:17 east northeast of Rolesville in Franklin county.
Also during this time at 3:30 a tornado was reported in Western Cumberland county, south of Fort Bragg, which uprooted numerous trees and did some structural damage.
A different set of tornadoes then set up along the I-95 corridor. At 4:03 there were two reports of tornadoes. That tornado moved from Wade to near Godwin and Linden, where it claimed one life. It was part of the same line that next reported a tornado at 4:15 pm about 4 miles south-southeast of Dunn. This massive tornado moved to Benson, Four Oaks, Smithfield, Selma, and then to Micro, where it did the most damage in Johnston county. The tornado then carried on into Wilson county and hit Lucama and the city of Wilson around 5:17 pm.
There were also reports of separate tornadoes in Sampson county around Roseboro at 4:40, also a tornado in Roanoke Rapids around 5:20 pm which tore off numerous roofs. Finally, the last report in the NBC-17 viewing area of a tornado was in Wayne county around 6pm.
HISTORY OF RED SPRING'S TORNADO OF 1984:
Interestingly, the last time North Carolina was in placed in a "High" risk for severe weather form the Severe Storms Forecast Center was the 1984 outbreak. I was broadcasting the weather then and remember how at noon, we knew something bad could happen. Indeed it did, with 22 confirmed tornadoes and 57 deaths an 800 injuries that night. The National Weather Service will determine the final count for this year's tornadoes. One thing I know for sure, communication and technology in 2011 is light years ahead of what we had in 1984. That has got to account for the much fewer deaths and injuries.
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