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NWS confirms EF-1 tornado in south Charlotte
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The National Weather Service confirms an EF-1 tornado touchdown in south Charlotte during Thursday’s strong storms.
NWS sent their survey crews to southern Mecklenburg Friday to investigate the storm damage and confirm a tornado did touchdown between Pineville and Matthews.
Trisha Palmer, with the National Weather Service, said the EF-1 tornado had maximum sustained winds of 96 mph and the path of the tornado was at least 17 miles long.
“We saw mostly snapped trees in Pineville,” Palmer said. “Most of the structural damage was limited to trees falling on houses.”
Palmer said once the tornado touched down it lifted up and then dropped back down several times.
NWS said they could see the rotation of the tornado from their doppler radar in Greenville, and the terminal doppler radar located near Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.
Palmer said NWS is able to determine if a tornado hit by observing the trees and noticing how they fall.
“First we find a start and an endpoint,” Palmer said. “We look at the way the trees fall.”
For a downburst or a microburst, Palmer said the wind hits the trees and the trees then spread out in a divergent pattern. In this event, the tornado caused trees fall over each other in multiple directions.
Palmer said the NWS survey team saw a lot of storm damage stretching from Pineville and Matthews.
“That was the area where we saw quite a bit of trees down,” Palmer said about the Matthews neighborhood.
NWS is sending out their crews to North Mecklenburg, Gaston and Lincoln Counties to investigate damage in those locations.
THE STORM
Residents in Charlotte and across the Carolinas are continuing to clean-up after damaging storms Thursday.
With the wind and rain gone, the attention turns now to clean-up and the continued flood risk.
The entire region saw at least two inches of rain. Some areas, especially in the higher elevations, saw upwards of 5 inches of rain.
Some areas in the foothills reported wind gusts up to 58 mph, with some roads underwater in Burke and Catawba Counties.
Rain fell every at times, challenging trees to try and hold their own in saturated soil.
Numerous trees fell across the region. Hours later, Duke Energy is still working to clear downed trees and limbs from power lines.
Some Duke Energy customers have been warned to not expect power back until at least Friday.
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