Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 1994

F2 tornado, Catawba County, North Carolina, August 16, 1994

This F2 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Catawba County on August 16, 1994, touching down at 7:45 PM EDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, 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 mph

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
August 16, 1994
Touchdown
7:45 PM EDT (23:45 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
1
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Catawba County
Touchdown point
35.730, -81.320
Record number
908

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:12 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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

11.8 hours before the tornado, 134 km from the path. August 16, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 12:00Z on 1994-08-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 37 joules per kilogram, CIN -30, lifted condensation level 625 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 1994-08-16The 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 58 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.1939Sfc1 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
37 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-30 J/kg
Surface CAPE
123 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
625 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.2 hours after it, 134 km from the path. August 17, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 00:00Z on 1994-08-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1105 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 648 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 1994-08-17The 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 141 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1105 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2155 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
648 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
141 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
219 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
5.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Hickory_regional_(Asos) (HKY), 6 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1994 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 16, 1994

30 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 1610:09 AM EDTF1Bamberg, SC5.0731$5,000 to $50,000
August 1611:20 AM EDTF1Orangeburg, SC0.150$5,000 to $50,000
August 1612:00 PM EDTF2Lexington, SC0.150
August 1612:16 PM EDTF0Lexington, SC0.530$5,000 to $50,000
August 1612:27 PM EDTF2Lexington, SC2.023
August 1612:53 PM EDTF0Lexington, SC0.1100
August 161:18 PM EDTF1Richland, SC1.073
August 161:30 PM EDTF0Richland, SC2.050
August 161:32 PM EDTF1Newberry, SC0.550
August 161:35 PM EDTF3Lexington, SC8.044040$5 million to $50 million
August 161:35 PM EDTF3Lexington, SC0.373
August 161:39 PM EDTF1Hart, GA1.01001$50,000 to $500,000
August 161:43 PM EDTF0Fairfield, SC0.550
August 162:00 PM EDTF0Kershaw, SC0.150
August 162:15 PM EDTF2Oglethorpe, GA1.0200$500,000 to $5 million
August 162:40 PM EDTF0Greenwood, SC0.130$5,000 to $50,000
August 162:50 PM EDTF3Union, SC30.0250$50,000 to $500,000
August 163:00 PM EDTF1Union, SC30.0150$50,000 to $500,000
August 164:33 PM EDTF2Fairfield, SC0.350
August 164:55 PM EDTF0Franklin, FL0.110
August 165:44 PM EDTF0Fairfield, SC0.1100
August 165:50 PM EDTF0York, SC0.150
August 165:56 PM EDTF1Cherokee, SC3.073$50,000 to $500,000
August 166:30 PM EDTF1Cleveland, NC2.0200$50,000 to $500,000
August 166:36 PM EDTF2Cherokee, SC4.0100$50,000 to $500,000
August 166:55 PM EDTF1Chester, SC0.373
August 167:05 PM EDTF2Union, SC10.01501$50,000 to $500,000
August 167:42 PM EDTF0Caldwell, NC2.050$5,000 to $50,000
August 168:15 PM EDTF0Wilkes, NC2.050$5,000 to $50,000
August 161:00 AM EDTF0Iredell, NC1.050$5,000 to $50,000

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.