EF1 tornado in Cherokee County, South Carolina

Tornado October 23, 2017 · Cherokee County, South Carolina

EF1

Rating

21.8 mi

Whole path

150 yd

Path width

$205K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Cherokee County → Rutherford County, North Carolina → Cleveland County, North Carolina; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 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

NWS Storm survey found the path of an EF1 tornado that began about 1 mile southeast of Chesnee near the Cherokee/Spartanburg county line. Damage associated with this tornado was largely confined to uprooted and snapped trees as it moved northeast, crossing Highway 11, Keg Town Mill Rd, and N Green River Rd before crossing into Rutherford County in North Carolina near Camp Ferry Rd. However, a couple of outbuildings were also damaged.

The wider storm

A band of rain showers along and ahead of a strong cold front quickly intensified during the afternoon across Upstate South Carolina. Multiple severe and/or tornadic thunderstorms developed within the line, with multiple tornadoes, some of which were quite strong, reported across the area. This was the second tornado outbreak to impact the Upstate in just over two weeks, and for the most part, the same counties that were impacted on October 8th were once again affected on the 23rd. In fact, a Cherokee County tornado from the 23rd passed within several hundred feet of an event that occurred on the 8th.

Began near Grassy Pond (35.1380, -81.8250).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

3 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Spartanburg County EF2 Cherokee County EF1 Spartanburg County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 725075. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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