North Carolina Tornado Outbreak Anniversary
Today marks the anniversary to one of the busiest and damaging weather days in North Carolina History. It was a different kind of March Maddness on Friday, March 20, 1998. Both Duke and North Carolina were doing well in the men’s NCAA basketball tournament. By the end of the day though, there weren’t a lot of people thinking about basketball.
The outbreak of severe weather was one of the most violent to ever hit North Carolina. By the time it was all over, there were ten tornadoes that day, two fatalities and 27 injuries. That is an amazing statistic when you consider that during an average year, North Carolina only gets about 14 tornadoes total! All in all, the whole year was violent.
Most of North Carolina’s 1998 tornadoes occurred during the spring and summer. In this state, peak tornado season runs from March through May, statistically the months with the most tornadoes. However, tornadoes have occurred in every month of the year, with many of the state’s most severe tornadoes having occurred in November. On the night of November 28, 1988, a series of tornadoes, ranging in strength of F1 to F4, tore through seven counties. These terrible storms caused four deaths and injured hundreds of people who were asleep in their homes.
To read more on the severe weather and tornado outbreak on March 20, 1998, check out the event summary from the National Weather Service, which includes some amazing pictures as well as detailed maps showing what the weather was doing that day and where each tornado hit.
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[...] Last week was the horrible tornado outbreak of 1998, read more on that here. [...]