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EF0 tornado in Polk County, North Carolina

Tornado December 29, 2024 · Polk County, North Carolina

EF0

Rating

1.0 mi

Path length

75 yd

Path width

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 a brief EF0 tornado that touched down along AR Thompson Rd near the intersection of Saddleside Dr. The tornado moved north-northwest, uprooting dozens of trees as it moved along High Meadows Dr before dissipating near Highway 108.

The wider storm

A broken line of low-topped heavy rain showers and embedded thunderstorms developing ahead of a cold front moved from upstate South Carolina into the North Carolina foothills and western Piedmont shortly after sunrise, and moved across the area throughout the late morning. The showers and storms produced areas of strong-to-damaging wind gusts, while a couple of EF0 tornadoes also occurred.

Began near Pea Ridge (35.3050, -82.1210).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF0 Mecklenburg County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1225702. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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