The tornado didn't touch down but got to the treetop level, Chief Meteorologist Don Schwenneker said.
People in the Triangle woke up without power on Tuesday morning after another round of severe storms.
The storms brought flooding rains, forced trees onto homes and a lightning strike could be to blame for a fire that left several people without a place to stay in Chapel Hill.
Residents regroup after wild storms cause damage across the region
People in the Grove Park neighborhood in Durham were busy cleaning up Tuesday.
Wind took off the tops of trees and some of them landed on one homeowner's shed who lives on Holder Road. In the front yard, a tree uprooted and fell on top of his house.
Trees throughout the neighborhood landed on top of cars and homes, and some of them did major damage inside as well.
"The thing is when it came, everything was breaking off reverse. So if you look, the wind came that way. But everything fell back this way," a person who lives in the neighborhood said.