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EF1 tornado in Iredell County, North Carolina

Tornado August 7, 2023 · Iredell 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

A tornado that originated in the Claremont/Conover area of Catawba County crossed into Iredell County, with the first area of damage found on a peninsula of Lake Norman at the end of Penicillin Point. Numerous large limbs and several uprooted trees were found in this area. The tornado continued to snap large branches and uproot trees as it moved southeast across Fern Hill Rd, skirting the southern shores of an inlet of Lake Norman, before crossing Perth Rd and I-77. EF0-level damage persisted as the tornado crossed the north side of Mooresville before crossing into Rowan County near Landis Highway. Some trees fell on homes in the Mooresville area.

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 Mooresville Arpt (35.6310, -80.9350).

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 1136772. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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