F0 tornado, Rutherfordton, North Carolina, May 24, 2000

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.

Rating

F0

Date

May 24, 2000

Touchdown

6:20 PM EDT (22:20 UTC)

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Rutherford County

Touchdown point

35.570, -81.720

Lift-off point

35.570, -81.720

Record number

809

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.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

27 minutes of warning. NWS GSP issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:53 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:17 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 Greer radar (KGSP), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:19 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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