EF1 tornado in Lexington County, South Carolina

Tornado October 31, 2019 · Lexington County, South Carolina

EF1

Rating

1.1 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 near the intersection of Roy Steele Rd and Crosby Rd, just NE of the town of Gilbert. It moved quickly to the NE at nearly 50 mph. It ended near the intersection of Drawbill Rd and Austin McCartha Rd. Much of the damage was

confined to trees that were both hardwood and softwood. The tornado downed large tree limbs, uprooted a tree and snapped a couple of softwood trees approximately

20 to 30 feet off the ground. The strong winds blew a piece of sheet metal that wrapped itself around a tree trunk.

The wider storm

A line of showers and thunderstorms, along and ahead of a cold front, moved east across the region in the late afternoon and evening of 10/31/2019. Due to sufficient atmospheric instability and shear, some of the thunderstorms were severe and contained a few embedded tornadoes.

Began near Gilbert (33.9355, -81.3702).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF1 Lexington County EF0 Lexington County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 858836. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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