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EF0 tornado in Gaston County, North Carolina

Tornado May 22, 2020 · Gaston County, North Carolina

EF0
Rating
21.4 mi
Whole path
100 yd
Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Cherokee County, South Carolina → York County, South Carolina → Gaston County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 tornado damage in southern Gaston County right around the time that another tornado was apparently dissipating just over the state line in York County South Carolina. Damage began along Crowders Creek Rd near the Sparrow Spring Rd intersection and continued E/NE across Ferguson Ridge Rd Highway 321 and Robinson Rd before ending in the area surrounding the Gastonia Municipal Airport. Damage was limited to many uprooted trees snapped limbs and minor structural damage along the length of the path.

The wider storm

A line of thunderstorms moved into the southern Piedmont of North Carolina from upstate South Carolina during the afternoon. Multiple reports of locally damaging wind gusts were received, and a weak tornado developed across southern Gaston County.

Began near Crowders (35.1640, -81.2860).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 896675. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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