Tornado Touches Down in Avery County August 15

By Tim Gardner

An extremely rare tornado has been confirmed to have touched down in Avery County this week by the National Weather Service’s regional headquarters in Greer, South Carolina, and by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a Washington, D.C.–based scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce charged with forecasting weather and monitoring atmospheric conditions.

The tornado is listed as a North Carolina Mountain Enhanced Fujita 1 (EF1) tornado via National Weather Service (NWS) and NOAA data, meaning it had winds between 86 and 110 miles-per-hour (mph). The Enhanced Fujita scale also rates tornado intensity based on the severity of the damage it causes.  EF1 indicates that a tornado caused moderate damage.

The tornado began near Dark Ridge Road just east of the North Carolina-Tennessee state line and tracked northeast to the Flat Springs community in the far northern section of Avery County near Beech Mountain on August 15.  It had estimated winds of 105 miles-per-hour (mph) and was listed by the NWS and NOAA as having been on the ground for approximately six minutes (12:56 a.m. until 1:02 a.m.).  It had a path of around 35 miles wide and 2.59 miles. 

The storm survey team found the tornado touched down near Elk Mills.

Avery County Sheriff Mike Henley said there were no reported physical injuries to any humans from the tornado.  Tree damage was found along Dark Ridge, Joe Parlier, Beech Mountain, and Buckeye Lake Roads.

It marked only the second official tornado confirmed since 1950 in Avery County.

Another tornado also touched down in nearby Yancey County, NC (Burnsville area) on Monday, August 7. It was also rated as an EF1 tornado and possessed 95 mph winds. It was registered at 2:48 p.m. and traveled 4.72 miles from the northwest to the southeast, just north of the Ramseytown community, in Western Yancey County. It had a path approximately 25 yards wide. There was only minor damage with trees knocked down from that tornado and no injuries to humans, according to Yancey Emergency Management officials.

It was only the third tornado reported during the past 73 years (since 1950) in Yancey County. 

Mitchell County (Spruce Pine and Bakersville areas) is the only county in Western North Carolina that has never recorded a tornado touchdown.

Tornadoes seldom happen in the North Carolina Mountains. All of the recorded events of tornadoes in the High Country have occurred from thunderstorms, but usually quickly dissipate because of the mountainous terrain.