2011-04-16 REPORTS: NC

[Jeremy Gilchrist]

I will post a more detailed report soon but Myself along with Kevin Smith and Todd Ferebee chased throughout central and eastern NC today (driving over 300 miles). We caught a large tornado while south of Wilson, NC on I-795! This was an incredible site, especially by North Carolina standards. Here is the video link:

Watch video >

 

[DRMabe]

Nice video! I chased eastern NC this evening as well. Saw 2 tornadoes, one was lifting when I spotted it, and 1 funnel cloud. I was one the storm that hit Sanford, Holly Springs, and south Raleigh. Waiting for it near Clayton to get south of it but it was rain wrapped by the time it got to me, done alot of damage. I backed off and headed east to get in position for the next cell moving north east along I-95. Once it got to Selma I noticed a small rope tornado lifting, followed the storm and it put down a stove pipe just northeast of Selma near Micro NC. Did alot of damage to trees and a plant nursery, SPC damage reports indicate this same tornado destroyed an entire mobile home park. Got a few photos of it and a short video from about a mile and a half away from US 70-A.

Couple pictures from the cell and the tornado in Selma.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsKu8eZFLfc

 

[RRogers]

Having to post via phone as internet is still out in the Raleigh area. Started the day in Newton Grove with Jeremy et al. Broke company to hedge back west as the linear mess quickly became the show. Played the flip flop game between the gorgeous Raleigh cell and the developing supercell just to its south. Finally committed to the southern storm when distance/storm speed made the Raleigh cell chase impossible. Got good video of what looked to be just a large rotating wall cloud off hwy 701 south of Smithfield. Though after driving over its path it was apparent there was a destructive tor in the circulation. Stopped the chase to help a nice lady with 3 3ft diameter oaks through her kitchen. Biggest shock for me today was that after raleigh was hit cell networks, and thus radar, went down completely. Couldnt call in any reports or even 911. Very scary and historic day for nc. Kudos to the spc, local offices, and wral for getting the word out, and to the krax radar technicians for fixing krax just in time last night. I cant imagine how much worse today could have been without them. I will post pics and vids when the internet is available. And please excuse any typos, this is hard to post by phone

 

[Jason Foster]

Just throwing up the YT link. I'll revise the post with a detailed account of the chase in a little bit:


HD LINK: http://youtu.be/AgGEZjFSCKE?hd=1

This is a video I just uploaded. The significant Damage in Snow Hill, NC from tornado

HD LINK: http://youtu.be/Bf5ebTswhSM?hd=1

 

[Jeremy Gilchrist]

Ok as promised here is a more detailed account of the chase:

We left on our short drive to the target area which was the middle of the NC coastal plain and set up shop at a McDonald's first in Benson then Newton Grove, NC. We kept up with the SPC products and issuances as expected along with the radar. As we entered early afternoon the high risk and a PDS tornado watch were issued. Keep in mind in NC I believe this was the first issuance of a high risk since the '80s! We couldn't help but wonder if it would verify though as the low clouds were determined not to break and everything seemed linear frame after frame on the radar. Sure enough as we approached 2 and 3pm everything began to change. Cells along the line quickly became discrete classic supercells with signatures more reminiscent of OK than NC.

It was time to get on the road and pick our first storm. In the car we had pykl3 radar on my android and ham radio to guide us (still need a mobile card for the laptop). We chose the Raleigh storm and got to it just as a large rain wrapped tornado was hitting southern Raleigh. We saw multiple power flashes with it near I-440's exit 16 (close to where 40 comes into the beltline). It was jungle and populated and we were in a pretty dangerous spot so we decided to bail on the storm (It was also rainwrapped with no shot of the funnel itself).

We than leapfrogged south to catch the next cell in Wilson County. We got around the forward flank easily (despite fast forward motions of the storm) and got a great spot on the south side near where the hook and circulation were expected to pass. It is also much more open down there with flat farmland. On a side note the synoptic winds were screaming ahead of these storms at the surface so at times there was a quite alot of blowind dust/sand (which we worried might obscure views). Sure enough we ended up on I-795 south and west of Wilson, NC in Wilson County. After 10-20 minutes of waiting the meso and a large cone appeared! One of my chase partners Kevin Smith got on the radio and called it in to RAH at around 5:15pm. This is when the video in the first post was shot! It was hard to tell exactly how far from the funnel we were to estimate its width but it obviously looked quite powerful. Looking at the damage reports that came in later as it hit populated areas it could very well be near an EF-3 when it is finally surveyed. Either way we had a good view and with the fast movement we knew if we tried to get closer we might lose the shot we had. So we remained there and watched it cross the road. It then faded into the rain.

It became obvious that we were not going to catch up with it again so we decided to go for the next storm down the line and tried to get ahead of it much like we did the second one. In this case we failed due to road options and we didn't have as much time to spare. We were most certainly cored at Farmville, NC and as it turns out VERY close to another dangerous circulation. The couplet was JUST to our south on the radar so we decided to take an escape route north. We would have never seen the funnel from where we were anyway. We were not in a safe spot. After it had passed we then drove south back to the town and came across the damage path including many large trees snapped off, significant roof damage, downed power poles and lines, and a van upended leaning on a tree and a house. It was the first time I have seen tornado damage up close and personal. Emergency crews were already on the scene which was a relief to see and we got out and snapped a few photos (which I will post later). We were also checking to be sure people were ok that may not have been checked yet by EMS etc. It appeared injury was minimal and people were mostly shaken up. This was hard seeing the human tool first hand but it makes you remember how real it is. Thankfully again nobody seemed to be hurt. One very nice man came out of his house and asked if he could use my phone to call his family which I of course did. He offered to give me something for that but I declined. I didn't think that was necessary and I could tell he probably had hard times to deal with aside from this disaster. We were then RFD'd by what I would say were 50-60 mph gusts and so we bolted out of there (as to avoid being hit by any loose debris still on the ground).

This was pretty much the end of our chase as we tried for one more storm behind the Farmville one but were again screwed by roads. We were going to survey some more damage on the way home in the Wilson area but we were losing the daylight and after 300+ miles on the roads of NC we were exhausted. This was a truly historic outbreak for this part of the country and will certainly be remembered for a long time.

 

[Jeremy Gilchrist]

Some stills (tornado images are contrast enhanced vid caps):

Damage from a different tornado in Farmville, NC:

 

[TrumanBoyer]

Got to the High Risk area a little late in the game, due to Northern VA traffic accidents. Back in '98 I swore I'd never chase in the Tidewater area again. Hurricanes maybe. Tornadoes are tough due to road network. Crappy roads, trees, traffic and flash floods. It took a High Risk to get me down there again. Still, managed to intercept 3 supercells, 2 were Tornadic with funnels, 1 maybe fatal, in the Richmond - VA Beach corridor (VA Route 460) all within 1 hour before dark. Beautiful Mammatus. Rare sight on the Hazy East Coast. After dark, continued to chase a hard circulation, lit by lightning flashes, until it was off the coast. Chase ended at Virginia Beach. Near Suffolk trees fell on road, car in front of me went over one, lost a windshield and 2 front tires. Airbag bloodied his nose. Continued on to the coast after I made sure he was alright, and dragged the tree off the road.

GLAD you guys were able to get something out of this setup. I am surprised there are not more replies. There were over 100 tornado reports in the I-95 area. Dense population.

My big question is "Bill Hark. Where are you ?" I hope you didn't have to miss this one right in your back yard.

PS - not sure when the last Carolina HIGH RISK was, but in the 1980's we only had SELS, not SPC. -I'm not sure they used the same risk categories as we have now. I don't recall any high risk days since SPC started in 1995. -Anybody know ?

 

[Tyler Yarnell]

Initial target was Florence, SC. Was having lunch when the high risk went up, and decided to re-position to Lumberton, NC. I had my eye on the cell that went through Darlington, SC before finally getting warned and repositioned just to the east of South of the Border on the NC side. Inflow was incredible, multiple times where driving through dust/dirt coming off the surrounding farms made visibility absolutely zero.

When finally was able to clear the trees and find some farmland, we came upon this:

Eventually repositioned to be more prepared to advance down the road.

Still can't decide if there are one, two, or no funnels in this pic.

and finally the last one before we decided to try and get ahead of it to no avail.

Eventually hopped on highway 74 and was in position to see the cell that produced a tornado in Bladenboro, NC. We were setup in Boardman, but visibility was a huge problem and it appeared a cell to the south was going to cut off the hook, so we decided to abandon the storm just as we could see a wall cloud crossing 74 from the rear view mirror. Last cell we tried was the cell that was tornado warned, at the time, in Braintree, SC. Setup just northeast of Conway, SC, but rotation was pretty weak by the time it got to us.

But all in all, a great day of chasing.

 

[Zack Hargrove]

Our experience at the Wilson, NC tornado. It was touching ground because we saw a power flash right before this video:

Watch video >

Our experience right next to the Raleigh, NC monster. Too rain wrapped to see but we were right next to the rotation rain curtains:

Watch video >

Still Pic of the Wilson, NC Cone:

 

[Jeremy Gilchrist]

Here is an enhanced contrast version of my video:

Watch video >

 

[Mark Ellinwood]

Jason Foster and I left Gaithersburg, MD a few minutes after 8am to make the trek down to North Carolina for what turned out to be one of the biggest East Coast tornado outbreaks in history. The plan was to be near Wilson, NC around 12:30-1:00pm to eat and begin our chase. However, being the first day of Spring Break for many, I-95 southbound was clogged with traffic, sometimes coming to a complete stop all the way from Washington, D.C. down through northern NC. At one point we even resorted to using back roads to help make up for the time lost in transit. We finally arrived at our target destination over an hour later than planned after 2:00pm when discrete supercells were just starting to get organized to our south and west. Having no time to stop and eat, Jason and I quickly fueled the car, grabbed some snacks and headed towards the cell that was tracking towards Raleigh.

We headed towards the Raleigh cell as the Raleigh metro area was getting tornado warned. Being a bit behind the cell, we had to play catch-up. Visuals weren't spectacular as the circulation was rain-wrapped as it pushed through the southern suburbs. The cell showed signs of cycling, so Jason and I continued with it into eastern Raleigh, where we spotted a funnel cloud and possible tornado. Since trees were in the way, we could not see whether or not the circulation had reached the surface while we were observing it. Shortly after this circulation became rain-wrapped as well, so we headed back south to catch the nearest of several storms that had active tornado warnings.

After dropping south to come in through the western edge of the core, Jason and I turned back onto I-95 to get to the second storm's circulation, which had also become rain-wrapped. The cell weakened substantially and didn't look like it was going to cycle, so we dove back to the southeast to get behind another storm.

The third storm had produced a tornado over Snow Hill not too long before we had arrived in the outskirts of the town. A couple miles NW of town we came upon 3" hail, took some quick photos and measurements and headed SE. We were stopped just short of town where many emergency vehicles were already on scene. A small community and a couple of commercial buildings had taken heavy damage by a small, concentrated tornado. Some of the homes had very little damage, but two homes in the direct path of the tornado had been completely ripped off of their foundations. One of these houses was still relatively intact within the property lines, but another house was pretty much gone.

Jason and I spent some time documenting the damage before hearing of another storm entering the area. This storm passed us to the east, and we headed off to try to catch the cell as it traveled NE at ~50 mph, which was actually one of the slower storm motions we had seen from the many warnings that had been issued in NC that day. Alas, the road network was not favorable for an intercept, so after a short chase with the daylight fading we started to trek back towards I-95 to get back home.

Some images of the hail and tornado damage in Snow Hill:

All images are on my web site: http://madusweather.com/?p=1011
Videos (will be updated): http://madusweather.com/?p=1025

 

[Chris Strahan]

Chase account can be found at the following link with video and damage pictures. Video is from the tornado that ripped through Fayetteville and continues on to my location on I 40 near Newton Grove, NC. I also have damage pictures from the tornado that went through Sanford, NC
http://weathernut.net/forum/index.php?topic=247.0


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3yRDDD05Xg

 

[RRogers]

Pics of the Middle Beast from near Four Oaks NC

Finally got internet back this evening....Nice job Jeremy! I think your tor footage is the best I have seen so far. Here are a few pics from off of hwy 701 looking west and northwest around 4:35 PM.

This was my first shot at any low level structure with a briefly visible inflow tail

Nice meso structure and lowering

Funnel and wall cloud just cresting the trees

After moving north a few hundred yards I was treated to this shot.

Shortly thereafter the circulation appeared to degrade into just a rapidly rotating wall cloud (as mentioned in my first post above) but in fact ef0-1 (isolated ef2) damage was occurring under this feature (per WFORAH damage survey).
I arrived at the edge of the damage path within 2 minutes. I didn't take any pictures of damage at houses where I stopped to help, out of respect for those just impacted.

edit: sorry Jeremy but this guy got better footage...wow, this is the coolest customer ever!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgwJfoZ-12c

 

[Jeremy Gilchrist]

No worries Ryan LOL. Anyway after reviewing where we were compared to the survey and radar scans it appears I filmed the tornado from 1.5 to 2 miles away.

 

[Mark Ellinwood]

To add to my earlier post...

My footage of the Snow Hill tornado damage:

Watch video >