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EF0 tornado in Horry County, South Carolina

Tornado September 16, 2018 · Horry County, South Carolina

EF0
Rating
0.1 mi
Path length
30 yd
Path width
$5K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 30 yards (0.02 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

A tornado touched down in northern Horry County causing spotty damage to pine trees and minor roof damage.

The wider storm

Hurricane Florence began its long Atlantic trek from the Cape Verde Islands in early September. It made landfall near Wrightsville Beach during the morning of September 14th. The barometric pressure at landfall was 959 millibars, or 28.32 inches.The strongest winds were recorded at 106 mph at Cape Lookout, as well as 105 mph measured at the Wilmington International Airport. In addition to the strong storm surge, there was historic rainfall totals of 20 to 25 inches, with isolated totals of 35 inches in parts of Bladen and Robeson counties. Flash Flooding was severe and widespread, with many communities experiencing flooding for the first time. River flooding was epic, with dozens of main highways impassible. Significant flooding occurred for weeks after the storm had departed. The hurricane spawned 19 tornadoes, one causing significant damage to 8 structures in the Sydney community in Columbus county. The community at Lake Waccamaw experienced more damage than Hurricane Floyd in 1999, the previous benchmark for the area. Particulars for South Carolina: Fatalities: 9, Homes with major damage: 543. Coastal evacuations: 455,000 evacuated. Power outages: 187,000. Population shelters: 68 with occupancy of 7500 at its peak. Cost: About 600 million dollars. In Marlboro County alone 34 state/56 county roads were damaged.

Began near Camp Swamp (34.0100, -78.7600).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 784857. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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