EF1 tornado — Alleghany County, North Carolina

EF1 tornado in Alleghany County, North Carolina

Tornado May 8, 2009 · Alleghany County, North Carolina

EF1

Rating

0.3 mi

Path length

30 yd

Path width

$5K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 30 yards (0.02 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

There was also a brief touchdown of an EF-1 tornado near Jarvis Road. This tornado tracked around a quarter mile and then lifted near Early Road. Numerous trees were snapped.

The wider storm

A thunderstorm complex over Kentucky and Tennessee moved east into the area during the evening of May 8th. The storm environment was such that storms would have rotation due to strong wind shear, and a low level boundary in place. Supercells developed over southeast Kentucky and moved southeast into far southwest Virginia and into northwest North Carolina during the late evening of May 8th. One storm produced an EF-2 tornado in Northern Alleghany County, with another brief EF-1 tornado touching down just south of the EF-2 track.

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 172056. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

EF1 tornado in Alleghany County, North Carolina

What the National Weather Service wrote

The wider storm

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

Tornadoes near your address