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EF3 tornado in Aiken County, South Carolina

Tornado April 10, 2009 · Aiken County, South Carolina

EF3
Rating
14.6 mi
Path length
880 yd
Path width
1
Death
14
Injuries
$5.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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

The supercell coming out of Richmond county GA spawned another tornado in Aiken county that did widespread damage. Many homes and business were severely damaged. Numerous trees and powerlines were down and there were around a dozen minor injuries. The tornado tracked along hwy 278. There was also one indirect death of a man who crashed trying to avoid trees on the highway and was killed.

The wider storm

Supercell thunderstorms moved across the lower midlands and produced large tornadoes. Other storms in the central midlands produced large hail and microburst wind damage. The largest tornado tracked across Aiken county along highway 278. There was one indirect fatality and around a dozen people were sent to the hospital. Several homes were destroyed and many had moderate to severe damage. Widespread trees and powerlines were also down in Aiken county. Total damage estimate was 6 million dollars.

Began near Beech Is (33.4100, -81.8500).

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 154427. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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