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EF1 tornado in Catawba County, North Carolina

Tornado August 7, 2023 · Catawba County, North Carolina

EF1
Rating
36.2 mi
Whole path
550 yd
Path width
$100K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Catawba County → Iredell County → Rowan County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 550 yards (0.31 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 a long-track EF1 tornado that touched down between Conover and Claremont near the intersection of Kelly Blvd and Heart Dr, where large tree branches were snapped. The tornado continued to snap large branched as it moved southeast, crossing Highway 10 to Murrays Hill Rd and Sherrills Ford Rd. The tornado intensified in this area, with multiple large trees uprooted, and some softwood trees snapped. Similar damage continued as the tornado crossed Long Island Rd, Hopewell Church Rd, and Mollys Backbone Rd. The last area of damage in Catawba County was found at the end of a peninsula in Lake Norman at the end of Northview Harbor Dr. The tornado continued into Iredell County just east of this point.

The wider storm

Numerous thunderstorms and storm clusters moved across western North Carolina throughout the afternoon. Many of these storms produced severe weather, mainly in the form of damaging wind gusts, some of which were fairly long-lived. A couple of weak tornadoes also developed in the Piedmont, including a long-track EF1.

Began near Claremont (35.7000, -81.1700).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1136771. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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