A powerful tornado ripped through central North Carolina for more than a dozen miles Wednesday, destroying homes and injuring residents, officials said.
The National Weather Service said early Thursday that a preliminary damage survey indicates the tornado was an EF3, with maximum winds of up to 150 miles per hour. It is the first EF3 tornado ever observed in central North Carolina in the month of July and the strongest tornado for this time of year on record in the state.
The National Weather Service currently uses the Enhanced Fujita Scale to rate tornado intensity based on wind speed and the severity of damage caused. The scale has six intensity categories from zero to five (EF0, EF1, EF2, EF3, EF4 and EF5), representing increasing wind speeds and degrees of damage. There is also an unknown category (EFU) for tornadoes that cannot be classified due to lack of evidence.
A woman surveys the damage to her home that was destroyed by a tornado on July 19, 2023 in Dortches, NC
Chris Seward/AP
The 600-yard-wide tornado touched down Wednesday afternoon around 12:30 ET near Dortches, a small town in North Carolina’s Nash County, just outside the city of Rocky Mount. From there, the twister traveled 16.5 miles over a period of about 30 minutes before lifting near the Battleboro neighborhood of Rocky Mount in North Carolina’s Edgecombe County, according to the Service National Meteorological.
While on the ground, the tornado snapped power poles, uprooted trees and damaged buildings. Several mobile homes in the Dortches area were completely destroyed and pulled 20 to 30 meters off their foundations. Further northeast, an apartment building sustained significant damage as all exterior walls collapsed with only interior walls and a brick chimney still standing. The twister also flattened a metal truss tower connected to a power transmission line and caused extensive damage to a metal warehouse building near Belmont Lake Golf Club in Rocky Mount, according to the National Weather Service .
The roof of a Pfizer facility shows severe damage after a tornado ripped through the Rocky Mount, North Carolina area on July 19, 2023.
WTVD via Reuters
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said its facility in Rocky Mount was damaged by the tornado, but that all staff “are safe and accounted for” after the building was evacuated.
Citing media reports, the National Weather Service said there were 16 storm-related injuries in the affected area, including two that were life-threatening, and no deaths. The Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it had received reports of two life-threatening injuries and one non-life-threatening injury related to the storm.
The tornado is part of a severe weather system that threatens about 57 million Americans. The latest forecast for Thursday shows damaging winds, large hail and an isolated tornado as the main threats from Denver, Colorado to north-central Oklahoma. And from Michigan to South Carolina, the main threat will be large hail, especially from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Detroit, Michigan, along with damaging winds and isolated tornadoes. There is also a risk of flash flooding everywhere.
Water drips from a person clutching a head covering as he walks in the sun through ‘The Zone’, a vast homeless encampment housing hundreds of people, during a record heat wave in Phoenix, Arizona, on July 18, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, extreme heat continues to plague a swath of the United States with no end in sight. More than 100 million Americans in 16 states, from California to Florida, are on a dangerous heat alert Thursday, with the latest forecast showing temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the Southwest and values of heat index in the 100s in the southeast. .
Arizona’s capital city had its hottest day on record Wednesday, with a high of 119 degrees and a low of 97 degrees. Temperatures in Phoenix have now been above 110 degrees for the past 20 days and have not dropped below 90 degrees for 10 days in a row.
A visitor from Canada carries water as he hikes the Hole In The Rock trail during a record heat wave in Phoenix, Arizona on July 19, 2023.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
A 71-year-old Los Angeles-area man collapsed and died at the Golden Canyon trailhead in California’s Death Valley National Park on Tuesday afternoon as temperatures soared to 121 degrees, according to the National Parks Service. Although the Inyo County Coroner’s Office has not yet determined the cause of death, park rangers suspect the heat was a factor.
It is possibly the second heat-related fatality in Death Valley this summer. A 65-year-old man died there on July 3, the National Park Service said.
ABC News’ Melissa Griffin, Dan Peck, Darren Reynolds and Jennifer Watts contributed to this report.
