Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 1973

F0 tornado, Rutherford County, North Carolina, May 27, 1973

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Rutherford County on May 27, 1973, touching down at 9:15 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
May 27, 1973
Touchdown
9:15 PM EDT (01:15 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Rutherford County
Touchdown point
35.380, -81.830
Record number
478

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), 00:00Z

1.3 hours before the tornado, 191 km from the path. May 28, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 00:00Z on 1973-05-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 749 joules per kilogram, CIN -11, lifted condensation level 655 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 00:00Z on 1973-05-28The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 214 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
749 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11 J/kg
Surface CAPE
735 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
655 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
357 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
6.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), 12:00Z

10.7 hours after it, 191 km from the path. May 28, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 12:00Z on 1973-05-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 218 joules per kilogram, CIN -49, lifted condensation level 631 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 12:00Z on 1973-05-28The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 418 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
218 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-49 J/kg
Surface CAPE
23 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
631 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
418 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
537 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.9
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1973 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 27, 1973

40 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 273:00 AM CDTF1Dunklin, MO0.530$50,000 to $500,000
May 273:35 AM CDTF2Shelby, TN2.0100$5,000 to $50,000
May 274:36 AM CDTF1Carroll, TN0.110$500 to $5,000
May 276:00 AM CDTF1Benton, MS5.4100$5,000 to $50,000
May 278:00 AM CDTF1Alcorn, MS2.010$5,000 to $50,000
May 2711:00 AM CDTF2Lincoln, TN0.110$50,000 to $500,000
May 2711:34 AM CDTF1Itawamba, MS0.110$500 to $5,000
May 272:15 PM CDTF3Jones, MS15.0400135$500,000 to $5 million
May 272:30 PM CDTF2Marshall, AL31.55003$50,000 to $500,000
May 272:45 PM CDTF1Hinds, MS0.5150$5,000 to $50,000
May 273:15 PM CDTF2Jackson, AL4.35004$50,000 to $500,000
May 273:50 PM ESTF2Sullivan, IN77.950$50,000 to $500,000
May 273:56 PM CDTF2Jefferson, AL1.05003$50,000 to $500,000
May 274:00 PM CDTF2Clarke, MS3.04401$5,000 to $50,000
May 274:00 PM CDTF2Clarke, MS0.1101$5,000 to $50,000
May 274:00 PM CDTF2Clarke, MS0.1101$5,000 to $50,000
May 274:20 PM CDTF2Lauderdale, MS0.1103$50,000 to $500,000
May 274:35 PM CDTF2St. Clair, AL8.4500$50,000 to $500,000
May 275:30 PM ESTF2Monroe, IN30.050$50,000 to $500,000
May 276:00 PM ESTF2Monroe, IN34.350$50,000 to $500,000
May 276:20 PM CDTF3Greenville, SC to NC60.215040$500,000 to $5 million
May 276:20 PM CDTF4Hale, AL139.18007199$5 million to $50 million
May 277:30 PM EDTF1Alleghany, NC0.1101$50,000 to $500,000
May 277:30 PM EDTF1Rabun, GA0.150$5,000 to $50,000
May 276:30 PM CDTF2Lauderdale, MS0.110$50,000 to $500,000
May 276:50 PM CDTF3Jefferson, AL41.6800144$5 million to $50 million
May 278:00 PM EDTF1Catawba, NC31.3300$50,000 to $500,000
May 278:00 PM EDTF1Walker, GA0.150$500 to $5,000
May 279:10 PM EDTF0Barry, MI0.113under $50
May 279:30 PM EDTF2Oconee, SC22.52001$50,000 to $500,000
May 279:30 PM EDTF2Abbeville, SC11.81007$50,000 to $500,000
May 2710:00 PM EDTF1Caldwell, NC10.4100$5,000 to $50,000
May 2710:00 PM EDTF2Heard, GA0.8100$500,000 to $5 million
May 2710:30 PM EDTF0Lincoln, NC0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 274:56 PM HSTF0Hawaii, HI0.110
May 2711:00 PM EDTF2Pickens, SC23.6150$5,000 to $50,000
May 2711:30 PM EDTF2Oconee, SC1.0100$5,000 to $50,000
May 2712:00 AM EDTF1Ionia, MI0.2133$500 to $5,000
May 271:05 AM EDTF1Wilkes, NC32.3103$50,000 to $500,000
May 271:30 AM EDTF3Fulton, GA0.5100$50,000 to $500,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.