Tornado, Watauga
- When
- April 20, 1:00 PM EST
- Where
- Watauga County, 3 mi SE of Boone
- Rating
- F1
- Path length
- 0.1 mi
- Path width
- 20 yd
- Injuries
- 2 direct, 0 indirect
- Property damage
- $50,000
- Coordinates
- 36.180, -81.650
Tornado in North Carolina, April 20, 1996
A tornado briefly touched down at 1300 EST approximately 3 miles southeast of Boone at an amusement park. The tornado damaged 16 vehicles and injured two people.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 2
- Property damage
- $50,000
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS RNK wrote it up.
A tornado briefly touched down at 1300 EST approximately 3 miles southeast of Boone at an amusement park. The tornado damaged 16 vehicles and injured two people. The tornado ripped the car door off of one vehicle and then blew a significant amounts of small stones into the vehicle. In addition, a man broke a rib after being lifted into the air by the tornado and then dropped. Several vehicles were turned around by the tornado.
The radar
The Greer radar (KGSP), 153 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 17:59 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Damaging Wind in Indiana, April 20, 1996
- Tornado in Kentucky, April 20, 1996
- Tornado in Tennessee, April 20, 1996
- Tornado in Kentucky, April 20, 1996
- Tornado in Indiana, April 20, 1996
- Damaging Wind in Mississippi, April 20, 1996
- Tornado in Indiana, April 20, 1996
- Tornadoes in Tennessee, April 20, 1996
- Damaging Wind in Tennessee, April 20, 1996
- Tornado in Kentucky, April 20, 1996
- Flood in Michigan, April 20 to 27, 1996
- Tornado in Indiana, April 20, 1996
More
Every storm in North Carolina in 1996Every state in 1996This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for North Carolina, 1996Warnings in North Carolina, April 1996
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5543787.