EF1 tornado in Iredell County, North Carolina

Tornado January 9, 2024 · Iredell County, North Carolina

EF1

Rating

9.0 mi

Whole path

250 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$250K

Damage as recorded

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 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 an EF1 tornado that began in the Claremont area of Catawba County crossed the Catawba River into Iredell County, just south of I-40. Several tree trunks were snapped along Interstate 40 between the river and Sharon School Rd. Additional snapped and uprooted trees were observed in the Sharon Community. The damage path appeared to end just north of I-40 between Sharon School Rd and Buffalo Shoals Creek.

The wider storm

A major/complex frontal system brought widespread rain with embedded thunderstorms to western North Carolina, mainly during the afternoon of the 9th. Widespread rainfall amounts of 3 to 5 inches (with locally higher amounts) in around 12 hours resulted in numerous reports of flooding. Isolated severe thunderstorms also resulted in a number of damaging wind gusts reports over the Piedmont, along with an EF1 tornado that impacted portions of Catawba and Iredell Counties.

Began near Buffalo (35.7390, -81.0690).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1159055. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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