EF1 Tornado — Alexander, North Carolina

2021-08-17 · near Stony Pt, Alexander, North Carolina

Event narrative

NWS storm survey determined a tornado that began in western Iredell County crossed into Alexander County near Smith Farm Rd south of Stony Point. Damage was almost entirely limited to uprooted hardwoods and snapped softwoods. A couple of homes did receive very minor structural damage. The tornado appeared to lift near Lentz Rd just west of Highway 64.

Wider weather episode

Tropical Storm Fred made landfall in the Florida Panhandle on the 16th and lifted steadily north through Georgia and into the southern Appalachians during the 16th and throughout the 17th. Tropical moisture and strong southeast upslope flow into the Blue Ridge mountains resulted in widespread showers and some thunderstorms producing extremely heavy rainfall rates. By the time the rain tapered off by the end of the 17th, 24-hour rainfall amounts of 5-12 inches were reported across portions of the mountains and foothills. This was in addition to a small area of 5-10 inch amounts that fell across portions of the southern North Carolina mountains during the morning of the 16th. The result of this rainfall was significant to catastrophic flash flooding across portions of the French Broad and Pigeon River basins, including some of the worst flooding to impact these areas in almost 20 years. The most severe flooding occurred in portions of southern and central Haywood County, where a number of fatalities and hundreds of millions of dollars and damage occurred. In addition, a brief tornado touched down in Iredell County and tracked into Alexander County.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (35.8460, -81.0520)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 982263. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.