Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 1973

F1 tornado, Davidson and Randolph counties, North Carolina, May 28, 1973

This F1 tornado ran 4.0 miles across Davidson and Randolph counties on May 28, 1973, touching down at 7:00 PM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

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 mph

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

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
May 28, 1973
Touchdown
7:00 PM EDT (23:00 UTC)
Path length
4.0 miles (6.4 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Davidson and Randolph counties
Touchdown point
35.880, -80.070
Lift-off point
35.880, -79.980
Record number
502

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), 12:00Z

11.0 hours before the tornado, 25 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

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

1.0 hours after it, 25 km from the path. May 29, 1973.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 00:00Z on 1973-05-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1584 joules per kilogram, CIN -24, lifted condensation level 957 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 1973-05-29The 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 161 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1584 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-24 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2024 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
957 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
161 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
178 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.7
Supercell composite
6.5
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Greensboro/Piedmont_(Asos) (GSO), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC7865220° 11 kt1006.8
22:00 UTC7769210° 11 kt221007.1
23:00 UTC7670210° 9 kt1007.1-SHRA
00:00 UTC7471150° 10 kt1005.4-SHRA
00:07 UTC170° 11 kt1006.1

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

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 28, 1973

22 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 282:01 AM EDTF0Forsyth, NC0.1102$5,000 to $50,000
May 283:30 AM EDTF1Franklin, GA1.040$50,000 to $500,000
May 287:00 AM EDTF2Mecklenburg, NC9.6100$50,000 to $500,000
May 287:00 AM EDTF0Cabarrus, NC0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 2810:30 AM ESTF1Vermillion, IN0.130$500 to $5,000
May 282:02 PM ESTF1Marshall, IN0.120$500 to $5,000
May 282:55 PM ESTF1Steuben, IN2.020$5,000 to $50,000
May 284:00 PM EDTF0Montgomery, NC0.110$50,000 to $500,000
May 285:00 PM EDTF3Walton, GA18.7200165$5 million to $50 million
May 285:00 PM EDTF1Wake, NC6.4102$5,000 to $50,000
May 285:30 PM EDTF1Greenville, SC0.590$500 to $5,000
May 286:30 PM EDTF2York, SC2.0100$5,000 to $50,000
May 287:00 PM EDTF1Mecklenburg, NC0.1501$50,000 to $500,000
May 287:30 PM EDTF1Lehigh, PA1.9100$5,000 to $50,000
May 288:00 PM EDTF3Morris, NJ0.450$50,000 to $500,000
May 288:00 PM EDTF0Cabarrus, NC0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 288:00 PM EDTF0Gaston, NC0.110
May 288:30 PM EDTF1Halifax, NC24.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 288:55 PM EDTF3Morris, NJ0.45012$50,000 to $500,000
May 289:45 PM EDTF1Hertford, NC0.1101$50,000 to $500,000
May 2810:00 PM EDTF0Nash, NC1.010$5,000 to $50,000
May 289:30 PM CDTF1, VA0.110$500 to $5,000

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.