EF2 tornado in Forsyth County, North Carolina

Tornado May 8, 2008 · Forsyth County, North Carolina

EF2

Rating

6.4 mi

Whole path

50 yd

Path width

Injuries

$2.7M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 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

An EF-2 tornado tracked northeast out of Davie County and crossed the Yadkin River into Forsyth County. After crossing the Yadkin River, the tornado touched down near the Old Clemmons Water Treatment Plant along Idols Dam Road. The tornado tracked northeast through a heavily wooded area for just over one quarter of a mile and then lifted off the ground. The parent supercell thunderstorm went on to produce another tornado approximately one mile northeast of the first tornado's ending point. This second tornado went on to produce significant damage to the Clemmons community in Forsyth County.

The wider storm

A strong upper level low moving east-northeast across Kentucky and Tennessee, triggered several instances of severe damaging winds and two tornadoes across the Triad region in the northwest piedmont of North Carolina.

Began near Clemmons Station (35.9749, -80.3996).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF2 Guilford County 1 dead

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 98538. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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