User blog comment:AkioTheTwo/Tornado Expieriences/@comment-29577347-20170102041012

Tornadoes are not common in North Carolina, but they arent extremely rare either. I have seen 2 tornadoes and a third touched down within a 10 mile radius. I have been through around 4 watches as well.

The first one occurred in 2008 when my family and I were driving from our house to Orlando, FL. It was around 5 PM in Georgia when the rain started to get pretty bad, and at 5:15 we had to pull over, as my Dad couldnt see the road anymore. My mother then pointed out something to the left, only around 1/4 of a mile away. I turned and saw my very first tornado, a fairly small EF1. It passed behind us, and we were all okay.

The second one occurred in January 2014 at a friends house. We were watching some TV in their room when a siren started blaring, and the TV began to report a EF2 tornado heading our way. We immediately took off to the small downstairs bathroom, trying to cram 7 people and a dog in there. It flipped the edge of their street, but the house was only missing a shingle (and branches were everywhere), and the treehouse was destroyed :(, but thats about it.

The third one was last February on "Bring Your Son To Work Day". Around 2 PM we all were told that had to evacuate into the stairwell. 2 EF0 tornadoes touched down, but they didnt affect us, as they were roughly 5-10 miles away. When we were heading home that evening, we went by where one of the tornadoes has hit the highway, and it looked like an absolute junkyard.

I have never been in a dericho though, as they are extremely rare in North Carolina, but I have seen a video from my cousin of one outside his house in Ohio.