EF3 Tornado — Barnwell, South Carolina

2020-04-13 · near Hilda, Barnwell, South Carolina

Event narrative

A tornado touched down in far southeast Barnwell moving northeastward toward the Bamberg county line southeast of the town of Hilda, briefly intensifying to a strong tornado along Hartzog Road. The tornado length was 5.5 miles and had a width of 800 yards at its widest point. The tornado was rated EF-3, with peak winds of 145 mph.

The tornado began just north of Highway 64 at Green Branch Road near Indigo Road. The tornado moved northeast across Hercules Creek and caused significant tree damage at a residence on Friendship Road. Several oak and pine trees were uprooted and snapped. A cinder block garage had its metal roofing peeled off and the wind stress shifted the cinder blocks about half way up the wall. Along its northeastward path, there was continued tree damage but the tornado strengthened rapidly as it crossed Hartzog Road just south of November Road. A well built bolted down metal

building structure and tin tractor shed was completely destroyed. Further north along Hartzog Road, a residence had part of its roof lifted off and behind the residence, a two story wood frame building was shifted off its foundation and destroyed an unanchored log cabin was destroyed. As the tornado moved northeast toward Huckleberry Bay Road there were multiple hardwood trees snapped near the base of the trees. The tornado began to weaken as it crossed Old Salem Road continuing to damage trees along its path before dissipating just north of Huttos Chapel

Road.

Wider weather episode

A squall line rolled through the region during the early morning hours of April 13, 2020. Strong instability and shear led to numerous severe thunderstorm wind gusts along with several tornadoes. In total, across central SC, there were 5 EF-3 tornadoes, 1 EF-2 tornadoes, and 1 EF-1 tornado. Two fatalities, and several injuries, occurred with the tornadoes.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (33.2071, -81.2742)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 884327. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.