For only the second time in recorded history, a tornado hit Graham County in the North Carolina mountains, a National Weather Service storm damage survey team confirmed Friday.
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The 85-mph, EF-0 tornado carved a 1.53-mile path on the western edge of Lake Santeetlah, a popular fishing and camping reservoir in Nantahala National Forest in the Great Smoky Mountains, an NWS map showed. People snare smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, walleye, crappie, bream and lake trout there.
The lake is about 215 miles west of Charlotte.
The tornado was 75 yards wide and lasted from 7:38 p.m. to 7:42 p.m., according to the NWS.
No damage or injuries were reported, while residents said the twister downed numerous trees.
“We had 20 trees down on little buffalo,” a woman reported on the Facebook page of the NWS office in Greer, S.C. “Most were in a straight line.”
She was referring to Little Buffalo Road.
EF-0 is the weakest of six classifications on the NWS Enhanced Fujita Scale for tornado strength and damage.
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The only other confirmed tornado in the county happened in 1974, according to the NWS.
The July 28 tornado was the second confirmed in the mountains that day.
An 80-mph tornado snapped and uprooted trees in “rugged” N.C. mountain terrain in the Allegheny area of Madison County, the Charlotte Observer previously reported.
On the night of July 10, an EF-1 tornado packing 90-mph winds toppled a camper with a person inside on a 7-mile trek in three Charlotte-area counties, the Observer reported.
This story was originally published August 8, 2026 at 11:01 AM with the headline “Rare tornado hit popular fishing lake in the North Carolina mountains, NWS says.”
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