Is there a city in n.c. that doesn't get tornadoes? (Raleigh: crime, house)

[khopkins75]

I was thinking about moving to n.c. and would be bringing my kids and mother. So I would need something safe on that as well as safe on crime. I work from home so theres no worries about finding a job. Any info would be great.

[SunnyKayak]

base on this map I would guess Boone. But you will have to adjust to snow storms and close to the cloud lightening. It also looks like Wilmington and most of the coastal towns up the crystal coast but your now in Hurricane territory

http://www.sercc.com/education_files/tornadoes_nc.pdf

[NC~Mom]

I've lived in my neighborhood for 35 years and never had a tornado come through.
You are gonna have weather anywhere you move.

[Francois]

Tornadoes are so infrequent in NC, that it's laughable (sorry) to base any decision about moving on them. If it were Kansas or Oklahoma, I can see the concern, but truly, they occur from freak thunderstorms once in a blue moon (not even that much), and are unpredictable, so you can't say that "such and such town doesn't get them".

This is no "tornado alley", and even when a town does get one, the damage (severe as it is to those who are hit) only directly affects a tiny swath of the area.

So, even if there were a place known to get one tornado per year, the odds are high that a given house is never damaged. However, most places here only see tornadoes every decade or so. Raleigh large a city as it is,hasn't had one since 1988. The Southeastern quadrant of the state seems to get them somewhat more often, but still, not a concern to the point of picking your destination based on tornadoes.

[Crazyland]

I remember my first day on the job in Jacksonville. I was working in the weather field.... and I look up and see a tornado forming. Imagine the forecasters horror! LMAO
Tornado's can happen just about anywhere. Hurricanes can produce them with their very high winds. You just have places where they are more likely to happen than others.

[davidals]

Serious or major tornadoes in NC are rare events; there isn't really any area in the state that is prone to them; they are a bit more common in the MS Valley and 'Tornado Alley' - the Plains states, but even there the statistical probability of one hitting your house is very, very slim. The mountains and the immediate coast are the least likely tornado areas in NC, but there isn't that much variation really.

The places in NC that have been hit by a large/major tornado have generally only been hit once, and that's going through weather records that extend back to 1880. In 1974, the town of Murphy, in the SW mountains, was devastated by a series of tornadoes. No tornado had ever been recorded in Cherokee County before that event, and none has happened since. So it's a rare occurrence (and in the case of Murphy, which is in a mountainous area, it's a freak occurrence).

Keep in mind that the most violent tornadoes ever recorded on the east coast of the US struck Wheatland, Pennsylvania (5-31-85) and Worcester, Massachusetts (6-9-52); the most destructive in terms of property damage in an East Coast state struck Windsor, Connecticut in October 1979 (to the tune of $400 million in property damage; the most expensively destructive NC tornado was the 1988 Raleigh tornado, which did $78 million in damage). So they can happen anywhere, not just the South, but at any spot on the East Coast, and in any of those locations, you're hardly in "tornado alley."

[LRoyal10900]

Actually, the most expensive tornado(s) was on March 28, 1984 when there was an outbreak of 11 tornadoes across several states. Southeastern NC received over $200 million in damages.

[LRoyal10900]

Originally Posted by LRoyal10900

Actually, the most expensive tornado(s) was on March 28, 1984 when there was an outbreak of 11 tornadoes across several states. Southeastern NC received over $200 million in damages.

My bad....bad memory, that is...actually it was $20 million in Sampson County, alone, I believe. It destroyed several businesses and dozens & dozens of homes, and killed several people.

[RavenLH]

Yeah, Boone, or anywhere in the mountains would keep you away from tornado's but then you've got snow, and you'll get crime anywhere you go, Boone is a college town, so you get college town crime. a few break in's, drunk and disorderly, noise, but for the most part it's a great place. They do keep the roads in great condition during the winter, I just drove up today, and had no problems, and there is a foot of snow on the ground.

[PrincessJoyce]

I live in Winston-Salem and from October-December the weather changes. What I do is accept it and stay prepared? Weather is not perfect anywhere. Due to climate change along with other things. The weather in your current area might become unpredictable.