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EF2 tornado in Yadkin County, North Carolina

Tornado May 24, 2017 · Yadkin County, North Carolina

EF2
Rating
5.9 mi
Whole path
225 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$9.6M
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 225 yards (0.13 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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

A thunderstorm dropped a tornado near the intersection of Highways 601 and 801 in Davie County (see Storm Data for North Carolina, Northwest, Northcentral, for more information on the beginning portion of this Tornado). It then progressed north and east into Yadkin County where it produced a continuous path of 4.1 miles where it produced an injury just southwest of Baity Road when a tree limb was blown into a mobile home that was occupied at the time. The tornado continued to move northeast at around 40 mph for the next 4.1 miles, lifting and dissipating just northeast of Watkins Road. Approximately 45 homes and other buildings were at least partially damaged along the tornado path. The tornado reached peak intensity and produced EF2 level damage, associated with winds of approximately 125 mph, as it moved over Courtney-Huntsville Road causing extensive damage to the local elementary school gymnasium.

The wider storm

A warm front extended east across the central Appalachians, allowing cool stable air to the north and warm unstable conditions to the south. The differential heating coupled with ample lift and low level shear provided an environment ripe for rotating thunderstorms. One supercell thunderstorm produced two EF-2 tornadoes that caused damage to hundreds of structures while downing thousands of trees across Stokes and Yadkin Counties. Other storms in the region produced damaging straight-line winds.

Began near Courtney (36.0490, -80.6110).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 699427. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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