EF1 tornado in Alexander County, North Carolina

Tornado March 23, 2022 · Alexander County, North Carolina

EF1

Rating

6.2 mi

Path length

150 yd

Path width

$25K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

NWS storm survey found the path of an EF1 tornado that began with tree damage near Hidden Valley Rd just north of Gus Pennell Lane. The tornado moved northeast, crossing Lambert Fork Rd and All Healing Springs Rd, Archie Mountain Lane, Gil Childers Rd, and Dandelion Dr. Damage was primarily confined to snapped small trees and large limbs, uprooted larger trees, and a couple of destroyed outbuildings along this section of the path, although minor roof damage occurred to at least one frame home and the porch was removed from a manufactured home on Dandelion Dr. The tornado continued northeast uprooting or snapping numerous trees as it crossed the Lower Little River along Mount Olive Church Rd, roughly paralleling Mount Olive Church Rd before lifting around Russell Gap Rd.

The wider storm

A cold front moving across the region resulted in development of a line of scattered thunderstorms over western Nouth Carolina during the late afternoon and evening. A couple of the storms produced locally damaging wind gusts in addition to an EF1 tornado in Alexander County. Additionally, heavy rainfall resulted in some localized flooding in the southern mountains.

Began near All Healing Spgs (35.9540, -81.3010).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1016964. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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