High Wind — Watauga, North Carolina

2024-12-05 · Watauga, North Carolina

Event narrative

High winds gusted to 61 mph at the Watauga Medical Center in Boone at 5:55 AM EST and to 72 mph at a location in Aho at 6:15 AM EST. Other gusts to or greater than 58 mph occurred at Aho between 6:00 AM EST and 7:00 AM EST. These strong winds prompted multiple power outages which peaked at approximately 1649 customers at 6:00 AM EST. Power was not completely restored for all customers until around 7:00 PM EST.

Wider weather episode

A cold front crossed the region on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. Behind the front, northwest winds increased Wednesday night, and reached their peak Thursday morning, December 5, 2024. Some of the highest locations across the mountains of Northwest North Carolina experienced wind gusts exceeding 60 mph between roughly 05:00 AM EST and 07:00 AM EST. Specific examples of these gusts include the following: The AWOS at the Watauga Medical Center in Boone recorded 61 mph. Sensors at a location one mile northeast of Piney Creek recorded 64 mph. At Mt. Jefferson, sensors recorded 68 mph. At a location 0.2 southeast of Piney Creek recorded 71 mph. At Aho, sensors recorded 72 mph. At the Ashe County Airport, the AWOS recorded 76 mph. At a location two miles east-northeast of Baldwin, sensors reported at 79 mph. With the very high winds also came power outages. The onset of the power outages occurred a couple of hours before the strongest wind gusts. The greatest number of outages peaked around mid-morning to early afternoon hours, then decreased in number through the early evening hours. In Alleghany County, estimated power outages peaked at 330 customers. In Ashe County, estimated power outages peaked at 2206 customers. In Watauga County, estimated power outages peaked at 1649 customers.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1227176. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.