EF-1 Tornado Confirmed in North Carolina, Storm Damage Reported in Other Counties
The National Weather Service confirmed its first tornado intensity rating of the day Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026: EF-1, with top winds of 90 to 100 mph, in Jones County, North Carolina. The agency also confirmed tornado touchdowns with structural damage in three more North Carolina counties: Montgomery, Cumberland and Columbus, from the storms that swept the Carolinas that morning.
The new confirmations follow a tornado confirmed near Blair, South Carolina, at 6:15 a.m. EDT the same morning, and a series of North Carolina tornado warnings that had produced no confirmed touchdown as of 11:09 a.m. EDT Sunday.
In Montgomery County, the National Weather Service's Raleigh office said a tornado touched down 1 mile north-northeast of Candor at 10:14 a.m. EDT, destroying one building, severely damaging another and snapping several large trees, an emergency manager reported.
A second report from the Raleigh office, logged at 11:58 a.m., recorded tornado damage near Bonnie Doone in Cumberland County: a tractor-trailer overturned, cars lifted and dropped, and roof damage, power outages and fallen trees around a shopping center, the county's 911 call center said.
In Columbus County, the National Weather Service's Wilmington office said a tornado touched down 2 miles northeast of Clarendon at 12:07 p.m., destroying four structures and snapping a power line, a member of the public reported.
The EF-1 rating came from the agency's Newport/Morehead City office, which observed the tornado five miles south of Kinston, in Jones County; its preliminary survey did not give a touchdown time. Multiple pine trees were snapped at their base, and the office said a narrow, convergent pattern of fallen trees and wind-blown debris confirmed it was a tornado rather than straight-line wind. The survey's full path length and width were still being determined Sunday evening, Oct. 11, 2026, and the office said it planned further fieldwork Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in neighboring Duplin County, with a final assessment due by Monday evening, Oct. 12, 2026, or Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026.
No injuries or deaths were reported in the agency's products describing the four confirmed touchdowns, as of Sunday evening, Oct. 11, 2026.
