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March 28, 1984 Tornado Outbreak

March 28, 1984 Tornado Outbreak. Deadliest Outbreak This Century. Outbreak Facts. Outbreak Facts. The most destructive tornado outbreak to sweep through the Carolinas since the 1884 Enigma Outbreak. 24 confirmed tornadoes, 7 F4’s, 5 F3’s and 7 F2’s.

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March 28, 1984 Tornado Outbreak

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  1. March 28, 1984 Tornado Outbreak DeadliestOutbreak This Century

  2. Outbreak Facts Outbreak Facts • The most destructive tornado outbreak to sweep through the Carolinas since the 1884 Enigma Outbreak. • 24 confirmed tornadoes, 7 F4’s, 5 F3’s and 7 F2’s. • Caused 57 deaths and 1248 injuries. 37% of the deaths were in mobile homes. • Storms were moving as fast as 65 mph, crossing all of eastern North Carolina in about 4 hours and crossing the MHX CWA in a little over an hour. • 3 total tornadoes in the MHX CWA, 2 were F4’s, the other an F3. • In our CWA, there were 16 deaths and over 300 injuries. • Pitt, Greene, Lenoir and Duplin were the affected counties. 9 deaths were reported in Pitt County with 7 in Greene County. • Severe damage to the East Carolina University campus. • There was a High Risk of Severe Weather from NSSFC (now SPC). This is the only High Risk ever used in Eastern North Carolina. •  The storms were as much as ¾ mile to one mile wide. • This outbreak developed near the center of a mesoscale low, in a fashion resembling the 1925 Tri-State tornado. In this outbreak, the damage path was attributed to separate tornadoes, though one storm produced (along a rough, 250+ mile track) a family of large tornadoes - 12 of which produced F3 or F4 damage with swaths of downburst damage.

  3. MHX CWA Timeline • 8:15 pm – Tornado enters Duplin County from Sampson County producing extensive F4 damage in Faison and Calypso before hitting Mount Olive in Wayne County. Storm travelled 21 miles with a damage path of ¾ mile wide. • 8:30 pm - F3 tornado touches down and moves across the southeast corner of LaGrange in Lenoir County, injuring 81, but no deaths. • 8:45 pm – F4 tornado caused 16 Deaths and 153 Injuries in Greene and Pitt Counties. Tornado was up to 3/4 of a mile in width. Fatalities were in Snow Hill, Winterville, Ayden & Greenville, where the southeastern suburbs and portions of the campus of ECU experienced severe damage. 300 homes were leveled, most in Greenville.

  4. Historical F2-F5 Tornadoes (1950-2004)

  5. March 28, 1984 Tornado Tracks

  6. SPC Products • Here are a few SPC (then NSSFC) products issued ahead of the event.

  7. Tornado watch 55 - 1130 am EST

  8. Tornado watch 56 - 214 pm EST

  9. Only High Risk ever in Eastern North Carolina!

  10. Mesoscale Discussion:

  11. Evolution of the Event00Z March 28, 1984 300 and 500 mb isotach analysis

  12. Evolution of the Outbreak • By 12Z, 500 mb – strong upper diffluence with dual 95 knot jets.

  13. 12Z March 28, 1984 850 mb – 60 knot jet. 850 mb

  14. Evolution of the Outbreak • Surface Pattern – A warm front gradually lifted north during the day Weds. Mar 28. A very strong meso low formed on the front over Georgia and raced east-northeast with speeds up to 65 mph moving across South Carolina into eastern North Carolina. The airmass became very unstable with Lifted Indices down to -10. The next few slides are a series of surface analyses through the day.

  15. 15Z

  16. 20Z

  17. 21Z

  18. NC SC GA

  19. 23Z

  20. 01Z March 29

  21. Some Accounts of the Outbreak • Faye Creegan, a 40 year old school teacher in Greenville, was blown away by the tornado that destroyed her house. Her body was never found. By 9:25 pm the tornado hit the Pactolus area.  Six houses were destroyed on State Road 1550 east of Pactolus. The following blog was posted online by Linda Whitehurst:"My son and I were on 264 just east of Pactolus on the night of March 28, 1984 at 9:20 pm. We saw the tornadoes cross the highway in the headlights of my car. I had stopped on the highway. With both feet on the brake pedal, the wind was blowing us sideways on the highway. We live on Sheppard Mill Road. The tornadoes that we saw in our headlights blew away my house, my storage barn and all of my dad's tobacco barns and pack house. It was very traumatic. We measure our lives in BT (before the tornado) and AT (after the tornado). We were the first family in Pitt County to get a FEMA trailer because neighbors and church family members came to help with the clean-up."

  22. Accounts of the Outbreak • "I was just 4 years old, but the sounds that night, and the scenes of the next day will never leave my mind. My Aunt Bee owned a rest home near the middle Wayne/Lenoir county line. My grandmother thought it would be a good idea to go there when she heard the weather radio sound off. It was dark outside, but the lightning was so intense that it lit the sky as if the sun was shining on the clearest day. Strikes were so numerous that the thunder seemed to roar forever. You could hear things hitting the walls of the home, trees snapping all around, sounding like fresh crisp carrots. I was so scared. At daybreak we ventured out to see the damage. Homes that were just yards away, destroyed, nothing left. Imagine this, about 40 yards off the left side of the road is an empty space where a 2story house once stood hours before, and 20 yards off the right side of the road is half of the garage that was once part of that beautiful home, and theres a 10-speed bicycle in there still on its kickstand. WOW!!"

  23. Accounts of the Outbreak • "I recall I worked that afternoon and it had reached about 81 degrees. That evening I traveled to Goldsboro to put a deposit on a dog. Before returning home I drove to center street Mount Olive, just 10 minutes before the tornado struck. I returned home and less than 5 minutes the power went out. There were strong winds, and I may have heard the tornado just a few miles away. It was dark, so there was nothing to see from my home at the time. The next morning the temp had dropped to 47 degrees and it was raining. I went out the following day with 35mm camera and took many pictures of the damage. Esp. high damage occurred on the Duplin/Wayne county line on Highway 117. Homes were destroyed, cars and trailers overturned and even tin roofing was wrapped around the remaining trunks of pine trees."

  24. SPC performance was outstanding even using today’s standards! SELS performance • Risk of “significant severe” mentioned in first Day 1 (14 hour lead time). • PDS Watch over AL/GA. (4-5 hour lead time). • SC/NC Tornado Watch (2-6 hour lead time). • Coordination call to NWS Columbia, SC. • High Risk issued (1-3 hour lead time).

  25. What if this outbreak happened today? • During the outbreak, the WSR-74C radar was in use. No velocity products were available. There were well-defined discrete cells. • Given the history of death and damage over South Carolina and in Bladen and Sampson counties in North Carolina, and with the WSR-88D’s suite of products, we would likely have had tornado warnings with ample lead time. • Media coverage would have been intense (i.e. imagine Skip Waters during an event like this). • Would have required an extensive damage survey with aircraft needed. Service Assessment was done in 1984 and would likely be done again.

  26. Sources • Storm Prediction Center • U.S. Significant Tornadoes, Thomas Grazulus, 1860-1991. • Historical Tornado Cases for North America, Jonathan D. Finch • Wikipedia • NCEP

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