EF1 Tornado — Avery, North Carolina

2023-08-14 to 2023-08-15 · near Whaley, Avery, North Carolina

Event narrative

NWS storm survey found the path of a rare EF1 tornado over far northern Avery County. The tornado touched down just east of where Dark Ridge Rd crosses into Tennessee, where multiple large tree limbs were snapped. The damage path extended east/northeast into a heavily wooded area, re-emerging in the Whaley community, crossing Joe Parlier Rd and Beech Mountain Rd, before moving along Buckeye Rd. The most significant damage was observed in this area, with multiple small-to-medium size trees snapped and some larger trees uprooted. The damage path was lost near this point, as the tornado crossed into another heavily wooded area. It was determined that the tornado continued into Watauga County just south of Buckeye Rd, as additional damage was found in that county. This was only the second confirmed tornado in Avery County's history, with the other one having occurred on 9 April 1965.

Wider weather episode

Isolated thunderstorms developed over western North Carolina during the afternoon. A couple of the storms produced brief strong-to-damaging wind gusts. Additional thunderstorms, along with a few storm clusters then moved into the mountains from east Tennessee during the late evening and overnight, resulting in a rare tornado, along with additional brief damaging wind gusts.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.2330, -81.9550)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1136920. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.