EF0 tornado, Fires Creek to Hayesville, North Carolina, March 17, 2018

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

2. EF186 to 110 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

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

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

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

6. EF5over 200 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

EF0

Date

March 17, 2018

Touchdown

8:32 PM EDT (00:32 UTC)

Lifted

8:39 PM EDT (00:39 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

120 yards (110 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Clay County

Touchdown point

35.076, -83.868

Lift-off point

35.070, -83.842

Record number

1803171832-01

7 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS MRX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• trunks snapped up the tree
• large grove of trees/pines
• From Fires Creek Rd...looking S to SSW across the river onto the hillside. Tops of trees snapped (small pines)

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Thunderstorms developed ahead of an upper level system and surface cold front during the evening hours. Several of these storms produced large hail and wind damage. Funnel clouds were reported as a discrete supercell thunderstorm developed over Southeast Tennessee and moved into Southwest North Carolina. As this supercell moved into Monroe County, Tennessee, a weak tornado developed downing several trees and producing minor structural damage.

The tornado started approximately near Fires Creek Road and Barlow Fields Drive. This was a non-continuous track more than likely due to the terrain. There was extensive softwood tree damage noted with most trees uprooted. Many trees were snapped in the upper third of their trunks as well. Trees also fell on homes and vehicles along the track. The rear flank downdraft winds were impressive particularly along Lance Cove Road and Sweetwater Bend, just south of the Hiawassee River. The tornado weakened and ended near Poplar Cove just south of the Hiawassee River.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS MRX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:14 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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 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.

The Knoxville radar (KMRX), 129 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:34 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.