Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina
Tornadoes in Caldwell County, North Carolina
11 tornadoes have crossed Caldwell County since 1950, 63rd of the 99 counties in North Carolina with a tornado on record, an average of one every 6.9 years. They have killed 0 people and injured 3. 1 was rated F4 or EF4 and above. Before 1950, Grazulis's record of significant tornadoes has 2 more crossing the county, back to 1876.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The United States rated tornadoes on Ted Fujita’s F scale until 31 January 2007 and on the Enhanced Fujita scale after it. Both run from 0 to 5, and both rate the damage rather than measure the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
F0 / EF040 to 72 mph on the F scale, 65 to 85 mph on the EF scale
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F1 / EF173 to 112 mph on the F scale, 86 to 110 mph on the EF scale
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2 / EF2113 to 157 mph on the F scale, 111 to 135 mph on the EF scale
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.
F3 / EF3158 to 206 mph on the F scale, 136 to 165 mph on the EF scale
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
F4 / EF4207 to 260 mph on the F scale, 166 to 200 mph on the EF scale
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
F5 / EF5261 to 318 mph on the F scale, over 200 mph on the EF scale
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.
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.
Now
- Tornadoes
- 11
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 3
- F4 and above
- 1
- Worst on record
- F4, May 7, 1998
The strongest
Every year with a tornado
The 9 years of the 76 in the record with a tornado in Caldwell County. Each year links to every tornado in North Carolina that year.
Every tornado that crossed Caldwell County
11 tornadoes, newest first.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 23, 2017 | 4:44 PM EDT | EF1 | Alexander | 6.5 | 750 | |||
| October 8, 2017 | 6:01 PM EDT | EF1 | Caldwell | 6.7 | 400 | $300,000 | ||
| October 8, 2017 | 5:51 PM EDT | EF0 | Caldwell | 2.4 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| January 11, 2012 | 6:17 PM EST | EF0 | Caldwell | 0.1 | 75 | |||
| April 28, 2011 | 3:22 AM EDT | EF1 | Caldwell | 4.5 | 100 | 1 | ||
| May 7, 1998 | 5:49 PM EDT | F4 | Caldwell | 4.0 | 1,320 | 2 | $1.1 million | |
| August 16, 1994 | 7:42 PM EDT | F0 | Caldwell | 2.0 | 50 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| May 5, 1989 | 7:28 PM EDT | F2 | Caldwell | 15.0 | 73 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| July 9, 1977 | 4:00 PM EDT | F0 | Caldwell | 0.5 | 20 | $5,000 to $50,000 | ||
| April 4, 1974 | 9:00 AM EDT | F2 | Caldwell | 5.7 | 10 | $50,000 to $500,000 | ||
| May 27, 1973 | 10:00 PM EDT | F1 | Caldwell | 10.4 | 100 | $5,000 to $50,000 |
Caldwell County before 1950
Before 1950 the record is Thomas P. Grazulis’s list of significant tornadoes: those rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody. 2 of them crossed Caldwell County, killing 1. They are not in the figures above, which are SPC's from 1950.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 25, 1884 | F2 | Lenoir, NC | 1 | 5 | ||||
| June 25, 1876 | 3:45 PM EST | F2 | E Lenoir, NC |
About the record before 1950
- Significant tornadoes only
- Grazulis listed tornadoes rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody. Most tornadoes are weaker than F2, so the list holds a fraction of the tornadoes that happened.
- The early years are thin
- A tornado is on record only where somebody saw it and wrote it down. The count rises through the 1800s with settlement and newspapers, not with the weather.
- Rated from accounts
- Grazulis rated each tornado decades later from newspaper reports, Weather Bureau records and local histories, not from a damage survey.
- The tracks are reconstructed
- Tornado Archive drew each path through the places Grazulis names, most often as a straight line from the first to the last. A track can miss a town it hit, and a tornado with one named place is a point. The counties are today’s.
- A separate record
- SPC’s database, from 1950, counts every confirmed tornado of any strength. The two are kept apart on every page and never added together.
Nearby
Warnings in force in Caldwell CountyThe forecast for Caldwell CountyThe live radar over Caldwell CountyEvery county in North Carolina
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. Before 1950: Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 and Significant Tornadoes 1880-1989, as digitized by Tornado Archive (Maas and others, 2024). Public domain. Counties assigned by this site from today’s NWS county lines.