EF1 tornado in Bladen County, North Carolina

Tornado September 27, 2024 · Bladen County, North Carolina

EF1

Rating

11.3 mi

Whole path

100 yd

Path width

$50K

Damage as recorded

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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

From the Public Information Statement (PNS) from the Raleigh, North Carolina Weather Service Office:

The tornado touched down just SW of the intersection of Highway

210 and Turney Berry Lane, where it snapped numerous 12 diameter

pine trees and uprooted large bluberry bushes. It moved NNE, and

crossed Peter Cromartie Road, where minor roof damage was noted,

along with several snapped trees. The tornado continued NNE to the

Bladen- Sampson county line, exiting the county near the Helltown

Road bridge across the South River. Numerous large trees were

snapped near the county line, along with downed power lines.

Numerous trees snapped along Helltown Rd around the county border

area with power lines downed and an outbuilding damaged by fallen

tree. Along and near Elwell Road, large, healthy, and leafy oak

tree was uprooted with saturated soils. Numerous large limbs

snapped out of oak tree with a few other limbs snapped out of

nearby trees.

The wider storm

Hurricane Helene made landfall along the Gulf Coast of FL in the Big Bend and weakened to a tropical storm before reaching central GA. The storm then turned northwest across the southern Appalachians before weakening to a tropical depression over eastern TN. Tropical Storm Warnings were issued for all of northeast SC but not in NC. Limited impacts occurred across southeast NC including some tropical storm force wind gusts and some a weak tornado.

Began near Ammon (34.7618, -78.4417).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1220985. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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