Qualla: North Carolina Tornado Outbreak of April 2014

North Carolina Tornado Outbreak of April 2014: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TheAustinMan, CC BY-SA 3.0. By April 25, 2014, the United States had gone the longest stretch in 99 years without a tornado death - almost four months. Meteorologists noted it with the wary optimism that anyone who watches the weather reserves for streaks like that. The streak ended in Beaufort County, North Carolina, when an EF2 tornado near Elizabeth City killed one person. A separate EF3 tornado tracked through the Whichards Beach area, damaging or destroying 100 homes and injuring 16 people. The same compact shortwave trough that had been moving across the country for four days finally reached eastern North Carolina with just enough moisture and shear to produce a brief, vicious outbreak.

Image: TheAustinMan | CC BY-SA 3.0

North Carolina Tornado Outbreak of April 2014: The Long Quiet

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TheAustinMan, CC BY-SA 3.0. The first months of 2014 had been remarkable for tornadoes mostly by their absence. The continental U.S. had run nearly the whole way through April with no tornado-related deaths - the longest such start to any calendar year in 99 years of record-keeping. The Storm Prediction Cen...

Image: TheAustinMan | CC BY-SA 3.0

North Carolina Tornado Outbreak of April 2014: April 25, Beaufort County

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TheAustinMan, CC BY-SA 3.0. Late in the afternoon, an EF3 tornado tracked through the Whichards Beach area of Beaufort County - a low, marshy stretch along the Pamlico River south of Washington, North Carolina. The funnel damaged or destroyed 100 homes and injured 16 people. Of the 327 homes damaged or dest...

Image: TheAustinMan | CC BY-SA 3.0

North Carolina Tornado Outbreak of April 2014: The Fatality Near Elizabeth City

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TheAustinMan, CC BY-SA 3.0. A separate supercell circulation farther north produced multiple tornadoes near Elizabeth City, including two rated EF2. One of the EF2 tornadoes killed Bryan Tornblom, a Beaufort County resident, ending the tornado-death-free streak of 2014 at 99 years and a few months. Twenty-s...

Image: TheAustinMan | CC BY-SA 3.0

North Carolina Tornado Outbreak of April 2014: The Disaster Declaration That Didn't Come

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit TheAustinMan, CC BY-SA 3.0. Governor Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency for Beaufort, Perquimans, Chowan, and Pasquotank Counties and opened two public shelters in Beaufort County. On May 2, he asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency for federal disaster assistance. On May 9, FEMA denied the re...

Image: TheAustinMan | CC BY-SA 3.0