EF-1 Tornado hit Craven County Monday evening

Downburst winds from the same storm blew through New Bern
Published: May. 17, 2022 at 10:11 PM EDT

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - The National Weather Service in Newport issued a tornado warning for Craven County Monday shortly after an EF-1 tornado or gustnado touched down a few miles west-northwest of New Bern. The NWS conducted a survey of storm damage Tuesday to reach their conclusion. Based on the direction of crop damage and a different direction of roof damage to a home, they decided it was a brief tornado.

The storm survey revealed a tornado path up to 80 yards wide and stretching one tenth of a mile long. Half the metal roof of a home on Hyman Road was torn off. This is about 8 and a half miles west-northwest of New Bern. They believe the tornado winds were between 80 and 90 mph, making it an EF-1 storm. The same storm moved into New Bern moments later and it was determined a downburst of wind produced straight line damage to tree limbs and knocked power out to more than 1200 Duke Energy customers.

New Bern Tornado Report from storm of May 16th(None)

The EF scale is the Enhanced Fujita scale which is used to rank tornadoes based upon estimated wind damages. An EF-1 tornado has maximum winds of 86 to 110 mph. The scale goes from EF-0 to EF-5 with EF-5 being the most violent of tornadoes with winds over 200 mph.

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