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EF0 tornado in Gaston County, North Carolina

Tornado January 12, 2023 · Gaston County, North Carolina

EF0
Rating
6.1 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 EF0 tornado that touched down between Old willis School Rd and South Fork Catawba River and tracked east/northeast, crossing Upper Spencer Mountain Rd, then Highway 27 on the south side of Stanley. The tornado continued east/northeast, crossing Stanley-Lucia Rd in a couple of locations before lifting just past the intersection of Sandy Ford Rd and Stanley- Lucia Rd. Damage along the entirety of the path was limited to uprooted pine trees and numerous large tree limbs snapped.

The wider storm

A line of heavy rain showers and thunderstorms moved across western North Carolina during the afternoon and evening in advance of a cold front. Embedded severe thunderstorms resulted in areas of damaging wind gusts and even a weak tornado.

Began near Spencer Mtn (35.3420, -81.1400).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1079550. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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