NC Mountain Tornado and Wet Microburst

If you were watching J's Breaking News (at right) yesterday morning, you saw me post this AccuWeather.com MapSpace™ radar image to the AccuWeather.com Forums, noting that it showed an unusually strong storm, especially for that time of day (8:22 AM!).

After the storm moved to the east it caused severe damage near Orrum, NC [Google Map] in Robeson County. The NWS says the damage was caused by a "wet microburst" not unlike the downburst that destroyed the Cowboys facility last week. They said the wind speed was estimated to be 125 mph, or the equivalent of an EF-2 tornado or Category 3 hurricane. Here's some video of the damage from WTVD; FayObserver.com says that the damage toll was over $800,000 and there are a number of other Google News articles on the storm.

Here's a plot of the various storm spotter reports that the storm left as it moved eastward (the Orrum report is highlighted).

UPDATE: Here are some neat aerial photos by TomFowler.Net.

In other North Carolina severe weather news, blog reader also left me a Comment yesterday pointing out this story with photos by WXII saying that a tornado occurred in mountainous Alleghany County, NC (almost on the Virginia, border, near Ennis - Google Map) on Monday, not too far up Highway 18 from my Mom's house in Wilkes County! the NWS report says that it was actually two tornadoes, one EF-1 and one EF-2. The only other tornado on record for the county (1950-1995) was an F-1 in 1973, the year before I was born.