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EF1 tornado in Vance County, North Carolina

Tornado September 27, 2024 · Vance County, North Carolina

EF1

Rating

0.5 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

$500K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 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 touched down over a large private building near Technology Ln and Poplar Creek Rd east of Oxford. The tornado ripped off the roof of the building and moved two HVAC units. The tornado crossed over Interstate 85 and into the Vance and Granville community college campus, breaking and snapping some soft and hardwood trees. The tornado then lifted just north of the community college, however roof debris from the private building was found lofted into a residential tree north of US Highway 158.

The wider storm

Hurricane Helene weakened to a strong tropical storm on the morning of 27 September across northeast Georgia. Helene continued to track to the west and northwest into the Tennessee Valley. Widespread rainfall totals of 2-4 inches of rain fell over central North Carolina, along with wind gusts of 25-45 mph. Additionally, four tornadoes occurred, with the strongest an EF3, touching down over Rocky Mount in Nash County.

Began near Dabney (36.3186, -78.4885).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF3 Nash County EF1 Sampson County EF1 Durham County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1210448. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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