Thirteen tornadoes touched down across North Carolina on October 11, and NWS Raleigh’s strongest ratings were two EF-2s with 115 mph winds, near Fayetteville and in Candor

Thirteen tornadoes touched down across North Carolina on Sunday, October 11, according to a count reported after the National Weather Service in Raleigh completed its damage surveys. The two strongest ratings from those surveys were EF-2s with 115 mph winds, one in Cumberland County near Fayetteville and one at Candor in Montgomery County. Nothing stronger was rated in the Raleigh surveys.

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The first confirmed tornado of the day was the Fayetteville one, around 12:05 p.m., and the rest arrived through the early afternoon as the remnants of Isaias moved across the state. Damage was reported across the state, and surveys by the weather service’s Raleigh and Wilmington offices followed over the next several days.

The two EF-2 tornadoes at Fayetteville and Candor

WRAL’s post-storm survey report places the Fayetteville tornado in the Yadkin Acres area, with a track of just over five miles and its strongest winds near Skibo Road. Vehicles were flipped, and there was damage at a Sam’s Club and a Marriott. The Enhanced Fujita scale’s EF-2 category covers estimated winds of 111 to 135 mph, and the Fayetteville tornado landed inside it at 115 mph. WRAL’s timeline has the Jordan Lake tornado in Chatham County following the Fayetteville one by about a minute as the second confirmed touchdown of the day, which shows how quickly the line of storms was producing rotation.

The second EF-2 was at Candor, in Montgomery County, outside WRAL’s own viewing area. Its rating was updated to EF-2 with the same 115 mph peak, making the two storms equals at the top of the Raleigh survey list rather than one outranking the other. WRAL noted that the Candor storm’s rating had been revised upward to reach that level, a reminder that the final numbers can differ from first impressions.

Raleigh-area EF-1 and EF-0 tornadoes

Beneath those two sat seven weaker tornadoes that WRAL listed with ratings. Carpenter in Wake County and Perry Creek in northeast Raleigh were both rated EF-1, at 100 mph and 107 mph. Jordan Lake in Chatham County drew an EF-1 at 107 mph, Linden in Harnett County an EF-1 at 105 mph, and Louisburg in Franklin County an EF-1, though the report gives 110 mph in its list and 100 mph in its text. Two EF-0 tornadoes followed: Clayton in Johnston County at 85 mph, which formed near the Wake and Johnston county line around 1:24 p.m. and struck near the Clayton Village Shopping Center, and a short-lived one at Harrells in Sampson County at 75 mph, which formed around 1:25 p.m. near Roseville Missionary Baptist Church. The Louisburg tornado came later, at about 1:48 p.m.

Residents described how quickly the storms passed. Will Johnson of Wake County, whose home was damaged, said it lasted about 60 seconds, and Lisa MacDougall of Johnston County, whose home was also damaged, described it as lasting about a minute. Eric Grubbs, a Wake County homeowner, said he would have been sitting right where the roof collapsed. Gov. Josh Stein said the state is safer and stronger together, a remark that frames the recovery as a shared effort across counties that saw very different levels of damage.

Columbus, Bladen and Pender counties

Three more tornadoes struck in the southeast, covered by the Wilmington forecast office. The Columbus County tornado was rated EF-0 and touched down at 12:04 p.m. at a property on Roseland Road in the Clarendon area, damaging farm buildings and displacing an empty grain bin. In Bladen County, WECT reported an EF-0 tornado near East Arcadia that snapped or uprooted trees along a 1.68-mile path. In Pender County, the weather service confirmed an observed tornado near Atkinson at about 1:18 p.m., though its strength had not been determined when that report was filed.

Where the tallies disagree

Add the nine tornadoes WRAL rated to the Columbus, Bladen and Pender events and the total reaches twelve named tornadoes, so the thirteenth is not identified in the sources reviewed. Other tallies do not line up neatly either. A regional roundup from Newsline gives 13 as its total but lists fifteen locations, including three Duplin County EF-2 tornadoes at an estimated 125 mph at Wallace, Beulaville and Chinquapin, a figure above 115 mph that the Raleigh survey report does not include. That roundup does not name the office behind its numbers, so the 115 mph claim here is limited to the Raleigh surveys.

Spectrum News meteorologist Lee Ringer wrote in a historical comparison that National Weather Service offices counted 13 tornadoes for the day, and that the State Climate Office called it the most in a single day since Isaias made landfall in 2020. Thirteen still falls well short of the state’s largest outbreaks, which include 30 tornadoes on April 16, 2011, and 20 on May 7, 1998. For residents, the practical point is that damage ratings are revised as surveys finish, and individual ratings, including Louisburg’s wind speed, can shift between early and final reports.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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