EF1 Tornado — Watauga, North Carolina

2024-09-25 · near Blowing Rock, Watauga, North Carolina

Event narrative

An EF 1 tornado touched down near the intersection of Birch Drive and Hill Street in Blowing Rock, then traveled northeast for approximately 0.6 miles before lifting northeast east of Chetola Lake Drive. Several softwood and a few hardwood trees were uprooted and snapped along the path of the tornado. A few free standing tents were also blown down.

Wider weather episode

A nearly stationary front that extended south from West Virginia into Western Virginia and North Carolina Piedmont served as the focus for thunderstorm development during the afternoon of September 25. Some clearing allowed for an increase in instability, but not quite enough to support widespread severe thunderstorms. Favorable upper level divergence was also present over the area as an upper low closed off over the Middle Mississippi Valley, and allowed for scattered storms to strengthen and cause isolated instances of wind damage and a tornado in Watauga county, which was only the fourth ever recorded since 1950. Southeasterly windflow around high pressure off the Atlantic coast brought deep moisture to the central Appalachians, which supported heavy rain within the thunderstorms. Some storms produced rainfall rates of three to four inches per hour, and passed repeatedly over the same locations.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (36.1364, -81.6769)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1211599. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.