Storms Rip Central North Carolina

Scroll down for more interesting coverage from this morning, including breathtaking video from John Brown and Mike Wilhelm as they intercepted the Tuscaloosa tornado Friday afternoon. Oh…and happy birthday to the world’s greatest weatherman, J.B. Elliott!

The same storm system that caused seven fatalities in Alabama on Friday and Friday night caused more death and devastation in North Carolina yesterday. The death toll is reported to be at least 24 this morning in the Tar Heel State.

The newspaper front page is courtesy of the Newseum in Washington, D.C. They show the front pages of hundreds of websites from around the country each day. Just go to www.newseum.org to view them. This is the link to a map that displays them by region. You can pan and zoom this map and see the pages displayed as you roll over the locations.

Early reports indicate that there were at least eight separate tornadoes across North Carolina. The SPC had nailed the situation with a high risk Day One Convective Outlook, 30% tornado probability and a PDS Tornado Watch.

A tornado roared directly across downtown Raleigh and the National Weather Service office had to actually transfer responsibility to the NWS office at Blacksburg VA for a short time. A Lowe’s store in Sanford was struck. The tiny Bertie County town of Askewville, (population 180) about 110 miles east of Raleigh, suffered 14 fatalities. Damage was reported all the way to Duck, on the Carolina coast.

If you have about nine hours, here is the outstanding coverage from WRAL in Raleigh from yesterday. That is the station where our good friend Nate Johnson works. He is working during this coverage. Scroll to about 1 hour and 25 minutes for dramatic coverage of the storm rolling into Raleigh, including Skycam footage of the tornado roaring directly across their downtown.

We have invited Nate to be on WeatherBrains Monday night.

Category: Headlines, Severe Weather