EF1 Tornado — Sampson, North Carolina

2017-05-23 · near Autryville, Sampson, North Carolina

Event narrative

At approximately 4:38 PM EDT, a tornado touched down just west of

highway 24 on the west side of Autryville, where it produced tree

damage as well as destroying one mobile home and taking the roof off

of another near Mills Street and East Clinton Street. The tornado

then briefly lifted before descending again near the Autryville

Volunteer Fire Department, which was severely damaged as the garage doors

blew in, and ripped a large portion of roof off. Two of their fire engines and one fire truck were covered in rubble. The tornado lifted then touched down again on the northeast side of Autryville, near Johnson Tanner Lane, where several homes were

damaged. The tornado lifted again, doing little additional damage until touching down again near McGee Church Road, where it destroyed a vacant turkey house and snapped numerous trees and power poles. It then dissipated at approximately 5:17 PM EDT. There were no fatalities and only one minor injury reported.

Wider weather episode

A significant impulse ejected northeast, moving atop a quasi-stationary wavy frontal zones that extended from the Deep South into the Carolinas. A surface wave and

a 40 to 50 kt low-level jet accompanied the impulse. A low-topped supercell developed

along the surface wave and produced an EF-1 tornado in Sampson County. The EF-1 tornado produced non-continuous damage along a 13 mile path from Autryville to just NE of Salemburg.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.0000, -78.6400)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 698052. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.