F2 tornado — Beaufort County, South Carolina

F2 tornado in Beaufort County, South Carolina

Tornado September 3, 1998 · Beaufort County, South Carolina

Rating

18.0 mi

Whole path

75 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$360K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 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

Thirteen homes were destroyed and another thirteen were heavily damaged, most of them were mobile homes. One mobile home was flipped in the air and smashed to the ground where a 66 -year old female was crushed to death. Numerous trees were snapped off 5 to 15 feet above the ground with others uprooted. The worse of the damage was concentrated in an area approximately 2.5 to 3 miles long across Fripp Island to near Morgan Island. The tornado then crossed the St Helena Sound and moved into Colleton County.

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5664052. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

F2 tornado in Beaufort County, South Carolina

What the National Weather Service wrote

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

Tornadoes near your address