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Tornado in Lexington County, South Carolina
Tornado March 12, 2026 · Lexington County, South Carolina
NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Richland County → Lexington County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.
The path drawn at its surveyed width of 25 yards (0.01 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.
What the National Weather Service wrote
Public reported video of a tornadic waterspout over Lake Murray near the Saluda Dam associated with a severe thunderstorm and strong velocity couplet from KCAE radar. The tornado did not cause any notable damage onshore before dissipating. Unknown wind speed due to lack of damage indicators.
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 Providence (34.0500, -81.2300).
Other tornadoes from the same storm system
2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1315022. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.
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