Thunderstorm Wind — Gaston, North Carolina

2023-05-16 · near Dellview, Gaston, North Carolina

Event narrative

NWS storm survey determined intense straight-line winds associated with a supercell thunderstorm winds caused a broad swath of damage through the city of Cherryville. Trees were uprooted, and large branches broken, along NC Highway 274 north of the city limits. The winds progressed southeast through Cherryville proper, and most of the damage was concentrated within the city. Numerous trees were uprooted, with a few falling on other trees, snapping their trunks. One home had a portion of its roof ripped off, and another metal building lost roof and/or wall panels. One known injury occurred when an individual tried to help people trapped in a car, and was thrown into the air as a tree fell, and suffered a laceration and a broken jaw. Winds associated with the damage were believed to be in the range of 65 to 85 mph. No indication of rotation or a tornado was observed by the survey team, with all damage attributed to straight-line winds. The damage swath ended along NC Highway 279 southeast of Cherryville.

Wider weather episode

Isolated to widely scattered thunderstorms developed during the late afternoon across the North Carolina Blue Ridge. One of these quickly evolved into a severe supercell thunderstorm in McDowell County and tracked east/southeast to the Charlotte metro area, producing areas of large hail and damaging downbursts along its path, including a significant downburst in Cherryville. This was followed by a decaying line of strong to severe thunderstorms that moved into the area from east Tennessee during mid-to-late evening and produced additional localized damaging wind gusts.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.4170, -81.4090)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1104941. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.