by Peter J. Robinson University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, Department of Geography Reprinted with permission from The
North Carolina Atlas Revisited. Managing editor: Alfred W.
Stuart. North Carolina's tornados are not able to compete with
those of the central USA in frequency or intensity, Rarely
exceeding F2 on the Fujita scale (shown in Table A). But
sometimes they are features of weather which have major impacts.
Most tornados are associated with isolated thunderstorms, and
they tend to occur as small, relatively weak and isolated
events. So their impact is usually minimal and local, with the
amount of damage or injury caused depending greatly on exactly
where the event occurs. So, in general, there are between 10 and
20 tornado days per year, most days having one or perhaps two
tornados (Table 6). At irregular intervals there are more severe
outbreaks, with several tornados spawned by a single weather
system, and with more widespread impacts. Hurricane Floyd, for
example, created 20 tornados along