Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 2005

F1 tornado, Forest City, North Carolina, July 7, 2005

This F1 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Rutherford County on July 7, 2005, touching down at 10:52 AM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 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
July 7, 2005
Touchdown
10:52 AM EDT (14:52 UTC)
Path length
0.7 miles (1.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Rutherford County
Touchdown point
35.200, -81.950
Lift-off point
35.200, -81.950
Record number
305

What the Weather Service recorded

This tornado moved into far southern Rutherford County from Spartanburg County in the Jonas Rd area. The metal roof was torn off a barn just across the state line. Otherwise, damage was mainly confined to snapped off an uprooted trees, some of which fell on homes. Near the end of the track, a mobile home was lifted and dropped 50-100 feet from its original position, resulting in severe damage.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:33 UTC19:30 UTCFlash Flood WarningGSP

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 12:32 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

2.9 hours before the tornado, 210 km from the path. July 7, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 12:00Z on 2005-07-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 309 joules per kilogram, CIN -68, lifted condensation level 1315 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 2005-07-07The 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 74 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 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
309 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-68 J/kg
Surface CAPE
695 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1315 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
74 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
170 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.1 hours after it, 210 km from the path. July 8, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 00:00Z on 2005-07-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 605 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 542 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 2005-07-08The 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 329 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 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
605 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
614 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
542 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
329 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
414 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.6
Supercell composite
6.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Greer radar (KGSP), 43 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 14:53 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
15:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Nw Boiling Springs NcCleveland, NCTREE DOWN ON HOME AT BELCHER ROAD JUST NW OF TOWN.
15:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGEllenboroRutherford, NCTREES DOWN IN ELLENBORO IN EAST PART OF COUNTY NEAR CLEVELAND COUNTY LINE.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 7, 2005

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 72:43 AM EDTF1Anderson, SC0.550$150,000
July 710:51 AM EDTF0Spartanburg, SC0.250
July 71:10 PM EDTF2Alexander, NC4.0100$150,000
July 71:22 PM EDTF1Patrick, VA0.650
July 72:10 PM EDTF2Iredell, NC3.5200$2.0 million
July 72:15 PM EDTF1Yadkin, NC5.1440
July 72:41 PM EDTF1Yadkin, NC1.4200
July 72:53 PM EDTF1Yadkin, NC1.1200
July 73:30 PM EDTF0Forsyth, NC8.0100
July 73:42 PM EDTF0Person, NC1.025
July 73:10 PM MDTF0Harding, SD19.010
July 75:20 PM EDTF0Guilford, NC5.020
July 74:00 PM MDTF0Harding, SD2.010
July 78:40 PM EDTF0Harnett, NC12.0100
July 78:50 PM EDTF1Brunswick, VA1.2250$10,000
July 78:53 PM EDTF1Nottoway, VA2.5250$10,000
July 710:29 PM EDTF1Chesterfield, VA0.5200$10,000
July 710:55 PM EDTF1Mecklenburg, VA4.5100$10,000
July 712:15 AM EDTF1Chesterfield, VA0.575$3,000
July 71:15 AM EDTF1Henrico, VA0.275$10,000

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.