EF1 tornado in Rockingham County, North Carolina

Tornado April 15, 2018 · Rockingham County, North Carolina

EF1

Rating

32.8 mi

Whole path

225 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$67.2M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Guilford County → Rockingham 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 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

A tornado touched down southeast of Greensboro in Guilford County shortly after 4:00 PM EST. This tornado later entered Rockingham County about one mile southeast of Haw River near Chrismon Road at 4:25 PM EST. The tornado damaged numerous buildings, outbuildings, and barns. At least twenty homes and farms suffered damage, while one house and two mobile homes were completely destroyed. The Oak Haven Event Center in downtown Ruffin also sustained damage. Countless trees were snapped or uprooted. Estimated maximum wind speeds were 110 MPH. Seven people were injured, including a father and a seven-year-old son who were critically injured in their moving car when it struck a double-wide mobile home that was lifted on to the 1300 block of Grooms Road. The tornado finally lifted at 4:46 PM EST about four miles north-northeast of Ruffin between Dibrell Road and Bradley Road.

The wider storm

A strong cold front with a negatively-tilted upper level trough approached the North Carolina Piedmont. Plenty of wind shear with modest instability made conditions ripe for large hail, damaging winds, and tornadoes. A supercell ahead of the cold front became strong enough to produce two tornadoes. The first tornado initially formed in Guilford County but crossed into Rockingham County and caused noteworthy damage, while a second tornado touched down in Caswell County and continued into Virginia.

Began near Benaja (36.2450, -79.6430).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Caswell County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 748581. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.