Tornadoes and Flash Flood in North Carolina, May 24, 2000

A few thunderstorms crossed the mountains, then exploded and quickly became large supercells as they moved into the foothills late in the afternoon. The most damaging of the supercells developed in northern McDowell county and became severe along the Burke/McDowell county line near Lake James, dropping baseball size hail. This severe storm tracked southeast along the county border, producing golf ball to softball size hail all the way to the Rutherford county line. In addition to the very large hail, this supercell was able to generate a few weak (F0) tornadoes. The first tornado briefly touched down near Bridgewater and blew windows out of a house. It may also have been responsible for wind damage at a nearby mobile home park where 15 to 25 mobile homes sustained damage from both wind and hail. The second tornado developed in extreme eastern McDowell county and blew down trees across Interstate 40 before crossing into Burke county. Several motorists on Interstate 40 sighted the tornado and had their vehicles damaged by softball size hail. A resident in extreme southwest Burke county, near the Rutherford county line measured a 94 mph gust of wind as the parent supercell moved overhead. A damage survey team did not find any tornadic damage in the vicinity but suspected this may have been the actual mesocyclone on the ground. There was extensive hail damage to homes, vehicles and plants from softball size hail that was seen "bounding" down the hillside. The third tornado developed near South Mountain State Park in northeast Rutherford county and blew down numerous trees in the vicinity of the park. This storm went on to produce nickel to baseball size hail in Cleveland county.Other supercell thunderstorms developed downstream in the western piedmont, producing damaging wind which blew down power lines in Newton and dime size hail north of Huntersville. One more supercell thunderstorm developed in the wake of the previous tornadic thunderstorm and followed a similar track. However, no tornadoes were sighted. This storm did produce wind damage in Shelby where a few trees were downed, briefly blocking roads.A slow-moving thunderstorm in Mitchell county produced excessive rainfall which resulted in 3 roads being washed out and 3 trees being washed down a hillside.