EF1 Tornado — Wilkes, North Carolina

2024-09-26 · near Lomax, Wilkes, North Carolina

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with peak winds of 90 mph briefly touched down just south of the Greenhorn Road and Burcham intersection. This tornado lifted less than a half of a mile northwest of this location. Several trees were uprooted and snapped, shingles were taken off a home, a few solar panels were dislodged from a roof, and multiple roofing panels from a barn were blown off.

Wider weather episode

An upper level low was situated in the vicinity of western Tennessee, while a strong upper ridge was positioned over the southeast coast, which helped to steer Hurricane Helene into the Florida Big Bend during the evening of September 26. Ahead of Helene, the Predecessor Rainfall Event (PRE) that developed on the 25th continued to intensify as upper level areas of low pressure rotating around the upper low continued drawing deep tropical moisture from the Carolina coastal region, which supported nearly continual waves of showers and storms over western Virginia through the day. Through the 26th, rivers and creeks began to rise as four to eight inches of rain fell through the day mainly along and west of Interstate 77. At times, localized rates of two inches per hour were observed. In addition, as Hurricane Helene approached the area, increasing low level shear helped trigger a short-lived tornado in Wilkes County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.2779, -80.9940)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1211185. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.