Severe thunderstorms containing large hail, damaging winds, tornadoes and frequent lightning with heavy rainfall will spread from the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee Valleys today then to the East Coast on Monday. Meanwhile, a significant ice storm continues across parts of the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes and Upstate New York and northern New England. For the Southwest, critical fire conditions. Read More >
Fig. 11. The number of days from 1950 to 2008 with an EF2 or stronger tornado within 200 square miles of any point.
Fig. 10. The number of days from 1950 to 2008 with a tornado within 200 square miles of any point across the western Carolinas and northeast Georgia.
Tornadoes in this area are most common in the piedmont. On average, piedmont counties experience a tornado once every two or three years. Due to the rugged terrain across the mountains, tornadoes are extremely rare, generally occurring only once in a
Fig. 12. The number of days from 1950 to 2008 with an EF3 or stronger tornado within 200 square miles of any point across the western Carolinas and northeast Georgia.
Strong and violent tornadoes occur across piedmont counties about once every 10 years on average. Meanwhile, strong and violent tornadoes are almost unheard of across the mountains, with only a handful of mountain counties reporting the occurrence of an EF2 or stronger tornado since 1950. However, the April 27, 2011 EF3 tornado that devastated the Lake Burton area in Rabun County, GA serves as a reminder that mountainous areas are not immune to strong tornadoes.