NORTH CAROLINA, N.C. -- Friday, April 19, 2019 was one of the wildest severe weather days we have seen in North Carolina in years. Before it began, many were comparing the set-up to the tornado outbreak of April 16, 2011. Thank goodness, this system turned out to be nothing like that.

The outbreak in April, 2011 was catastrophic and historic. The first tornado warnings were issued across the western Piedmont for EF-0 and EF-1 tornadoes that did cause some damage, but it got much worse later in the day to the east.

The first “Tornado Emergency” of the day was issued as an EF-3 touched down near Sanford then tracked northeast all the way through the northeastern suburbs of Raleigh. This long track tornado was on the ground for approximately 63 miles and was over 500 yards wide at times. Two people were killed in Sanford and four more were killed northeast of Raleigh. There was an estimated $215 million in damage from this tornado alone.

A second “Tornado Emergency” came later to the south as another EF-3 developed near Fayetteville and tracked northeast. One person was killed in Cumberland County and another in Dunn. At least 300 homes were destroyed or severely damaged.

The most deadly tornado came later in northeastern North Carolina in Bertie County. Over 100 homes were destroyed in Askewville and Colerain where 12 people were killed. There were several more weaker tornadoes that caused even more damage across much of eastern North Carolina.

Campare all of that to April, 2019 and you will see we were very fortunate. The image above shows all the damage reports. Most of them are from straight-line winds, knocking down multiple trees. The areas circled in red were confirmed tornadoes, but nothing was more than EF-1 in strength. There were a lot of trees down on homes and cars with plenty of power outages, but there were very few inuries and there were no fatalities.