EF3 tornado in Sumter County, South Carolina

Tornado April 15, 2007 · Sumter County, South Carolina

EF3

Rating

19.0 mi

Path length

300 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 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

An EF3 tornado traveled from southwest to northeast of Sumter destroying a seven mobile homes, severely damaging nine framed homes, and doing light to moderate damage to an additional 62 mobile and framed homes. There was 1 fatality and 3 injuries. The tornado touched down as an EF1 and ended as an EF3 where the fatality occurred at a mobile home on hwy 76.

The wider storm

A cold front with strong dynamics and windshear pushed into the area late Saturday and early Sunday. Hail and microbursts accompanied the first wave of storms while the second wave of storms produced a half dozen tornadoes. The largest was an EF3 that killed on person and injured 3 others.

Began near Pinewood (33.7876, -80.4987).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Lee County EF0 Bamberg County EF0 Bamberg County EF0 Orangeburg County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 16380. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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