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Tornado Hits Rutherford County, NC Near Facebook

Jan 12, 2012; 9:27 AM ET

UPDATE: A second EF-2 tornado was confirmed in Burke County, even closer to my mom's house, near Hildebrand, which was my great grandmother's town and name. These storms hit way too close to home! Two EF-2's in January is unheard of. And, an EF-0 weak tornado was confirmed in Granite Falls, NC, literally about 30 miles from Mom's house.

UPDATE: The tornado has been rated an EF-2. Although there have only been 23 tornadoes in North Carolina during January, according to WBTV, only a couple were of that strength. Eric Thomas, a respected meteorologist there who I used to watch when I was a kid, says he's "never seen a large tornado on the ground with temperatures in the 40's."

ORIGINAL REPORT: An unconfirmed tornado touched down Wednesday evening in Rutherford County, NC, sparing a Facebook Data Center. WSOC-TV says damage was widespread and 15 people were injured. They provided the raw aerial footage below and will be updating their Facebook Page with more, throughout the day.

It's impossible to estimate damage before the National Weather Service issues an EF (Enhanced Fujita Scale) rating later today, but if it was a tornado, I doubt it will be an EF-0, the lowest rating; this damage looks significant. The photo below, sent in by an WSOC viewer, appears to show a funnel cloud. While this photo appears to be legitimate, there is a picture floating around on the Internet which was obviously hoaxed, because it shows green grass and trees. It may have been warm this winter, but it's not green in that part of North Carolina in January.

On a personal note, the track of this storm nearly went over my childhood home, where my mom still lives (ironic since a tornado also threatened coworker Frank Strait's family in November). The maps below showing the tornado warnings, damage reports, radar, and the approximate track of the storm, are courtesy Carolina Meteorologist Brad Panovich on Google+ (also check me out there).

The twister would have hit close to the Rutherford County Facebook Data Center that was built there last year. Based on posts from the Data Center, it was not damaged. It is shown below in a photo from November.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com

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