F2 tornado — Florence County, South Carolina

F2 tornado in Florence County, South Carolina

Tornado May 14, 2006 · Florence County, South Carolina

Rating

0.6 mi

Path length

150 yd

Path width

$1.3M

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A Storm Survey concluded a tornado moved through the Glendale community of Florence. The majority of damage was F1 with a path 1000 yards long and up to 150 yards wide. There was a small area (150 yards long 20 yards wide) of heavier F2 damage, with winds estimated at 120 mph. Sixty homes were damaged, six of which had major structural damage, largely due to snapped and uprooted trees. The Quinby area had penny to golfball size hail, with trees and power lines down. The Florence county tax assessor estimated the damage at 1.3 million dollars.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5510643. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

F2 tornado in Florence County, South Carolina

What the National Weather Service wrote

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