EF1 Tornado — Fairfield, South Carolina

2024-12-29 · near Rockton, Fairfield, South Carolina

Event narrative

An EF-1 tornado with peak winds of 95 mph began just north of a manufacturing plant on Highway 321 and Guardian Way where it overturned four empty trailers and snapped multiple utility poles. The tornado moved east across Highway 321, where it collapsed a large garage door on the east side of a food plant then snapped numerous trees along Industrial Park Rd. The tornado moved across Highway 34E, snapping several trees and power poles near a medical manufacturer, before moving through an inaccessible wooded area and eventually crossing Horse Creek Rd and dissipating.

Wider weather episode

A deep upper trough and an associated surface prefrontal trough translated from the Deep South into the Southeast during the morning hours. A long-lived QLCS containing strong to severe storms propagated along with the prefrontal trough, likely cold-pool dominated. This QLCS produced multiple reports of wind damage as well as multiple confirmed tornadoes.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (34.3341, -81.0875)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1221825. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.