***Update 11:15PM:   The National Weather Service just confirmed that a brief tornado touched down at 11:45AM in Sunbury, NC in Gates County, NC one mile east of the Highway 158 and Folly Rd intersection. Path was 30 yards long and 1/4 mile wide.***

What a day!  I was woken up by my NOAA weather radio today.  If you don’t have one, I highly recommend buying one.  They especially come in handy when you are sleeping and unaware of impending severe weather or if you are out driving or boating and have no way of getting a weather forecast. 

Hats off to Meteorologists Jon Cash and Jeremy Wheeler for their wall-to-wall severe storm coverage this morning.  I mentioned Sunday night how I was concerned about the very strong winds “upstairs” and unfortunately we did have some wind damage on Monday morning into early afternoon.  Jon Cash and Jeremy Wheeler also touched on the damage below in their blogs.  The wind damage in Bertie County that blew the roof off the Peanut Belt Research Station was NOT a tornado.  The National Weather Service in Wakefield went down there today and did a storm survey.  They concluded that the damage was due to a microburst (basically, very strong downburst winds within a severe thunderstorm).   The National Weather Service will investigate the “possible tornado sighting” in Sunbury, NC and conduct a storm survey at the site of the damaged seafood packing building in Newport News on Tuesday.

The severe weather is over now- whew!  The cold front that brought the storms is long gone and now the big weather story heading into Tuesday is the cold!  In fact, frost is likely away from the immediate coast on Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.

Sweet dreams! 

Meteorologist Cheryl Nelson