How many nighttime tornadoes happen in North Carolina?

At 3:42 a.m. Tuesday, a tornado was confirmed in Pinetops. This came less than 12 hours after a reported tornado just 14 miles away in Princeville.

As we sent our crew to survey the damage and went through post-storm analysis, we started digging into nighttime tornado statistics in North Carolina.

A recent study in 2022 finds that North Carolina ranks 12th in the country for nighttime tornadoes.

Tennessee is consistently #1 in the country with nearly half of their tornadoes happening during the night.

This time of year, the wind above the surface (called the low level jet) can surge east of storm systems that oftentimes happen east of the Rockies.

This storm system is behaving more like a tropical system, in that outer bands are producing quick, spin-up storms as opposed to long-track tornadoes like you’d often see in Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, etc.

This is why it is always crucial to have multiple ways to receive weather warnings.

Download the WRAL News and Weather apps, invest in a NOAA Weather Radio and/or leave the Emergency Alert System notifications ON in your phone.