EF0 tornado in Richland County, South Carolina

Tornado March 12, 2026 · Richland County, South Carolina

EF0

Rating

2.8 mi

Whole path

100 yd

Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Richland County → Lexington County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A NWS Survey Team confirmed a brief EF-0 tornado northwest of Irmo in Richland County, SC from March 12th 2026. The tornado formed near Dreher Shoals Road and continued east across Lemington Way and Lemington Circle causing minor tree damage along with siding and shingle loss to several homes. Further east additional damage to trees and residences occurred along River Song Road and Royal Tower Drive. Similar damage occurred in the adjacent neighborhoods eastward to Rawls Creek Park before the tornado dissipated around Woodrow Street.

The wider storm

A southern stream shortwave phased with a digging northern stream upper trough over the OH/TN valleys the night of 3/11 into the morning of 3/12 bringing a strongly forced system into the forecast area. The environment ahead of this system was characterized by sufficient instability with MLCAPE values around 500 J/kg, 0-1km SRH values of 100-200 m2s2 and 0-6km shear of 60 knots. This environment combined with strong forcing supported a QLCS line that moved across the forecast area during the morning hours. Several damaging wind reports and a few tornadoes occurred.

Began near Ballentine (34.1041, -81.2263).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF0 Bamberg County EF0 Saluda County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1315021. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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