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EF0 tornado in Surry County, North Carolina

Tornado April 28, 2023 · Surry County, North Carolina

EF0
Rating
0.1 mi
Path length
60 yd
Path width
$5K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. 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

A brief tornado touched down near Knollwood Drive and traveled southeast for about 100 yards into a valley before lifting. The tornado reached a maximum strength of EF-0 with peak winds estimated to be 85 mph. The tornado uprooted several trees and was embedded within a the larger area of straight line winds described in the 15:41 EST Thunderstorm Wind report for Surry County. Damage values are estimated.

The wider storm

A retreating area of high pressure over Virginia, and a northward advancing warm front moving into Virginia, set the stage for an unstable atmosphere prone for rotation over the Piedmont and Foothill region of North Carolina. By the afternoon hours, showers and storms starting forming, with a couple of these storms reached severe levels with hail and damaging winds. A shortly lived EF0 tornado occurred near Elkin in Surry County.

Began near Elkin (36.2540, -80.8355).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1087843. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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