EF4 Tornado — Hampton, South Carolina
2020-04-13 · near Estill Muni Arpt, Hampton, South Carolina
Event narrative
A National Weather Service Storm Survey Team confirmed an EF-4 tornado with an estimated maximum wind speed of 175 mph in central Hampton County.
The tornado began just north of Collie Road, approximately 3 miles west-northwest of Scotia, South Carolina, snapping and uprooting trees and causing damage to the Federal Correctional Institution of Estill along its northeast track. The tornado then continued northeast, crossing over Highway 321 near the intersection with County Road S-25-35 before gaining strength and causing substantial damage. Beyond this point, the unusually long track and wide tornado damaged and destroyed many residences, including mobile and single family homes along its entire path. A few automobiles were also tossed/rolled 50 to 75 yards from their original locations. In addition, the tornado reached a maximum width of about 0.75 mile, causing extensive damage to thousands of trees and numerous power lines. At times, the damage pattern suggested that the tornado may have consisted of multiple vortices, which can occur in stronger tornadoes.
The most significant structural damage occurred just south of Estill, South Carolina and across Nixville, South Carolina, where at least six residences were destroyed. After crossing Highway 321 and continuing a northeast track, the tornado began producing EF-2 to EF-3 damage to residences along Sprayfield Road to Lena Expressway. The tornado then continued northeast where it completely destroyed a mobile home near the intersection of Highway 3 and Highway 601, tragically claiming the lives of 2 adult males. Continuing on a northeast track, the tornado heavily damaged homes near the intersection of Turner Expressway and Brandy Lane, including completely destroying a mobile home that tragically claimed the lives of 2 adult females and 1 adult male. The tornado then reached peak EF-4 intensity along Lento Road where the roof and all exterior/interior walls of a two story home were removed and dispersed across the yard. The tornado then began a weakening trend while tracking further northeast, eventually crossing Highway 278, Yemassee Highway and ending approximately 1 mile beyond the intersection of Old Salkehatchie Highway and Archie Road before the Hampton/Colleton County line.
Overall, the tornado path stretched approximately 24 miles, claiming the lives of 5 individuals in the hardest hit areas just south of Estill, South Carolina and across Nixville, South Carolina. Additionally, 60 people sustained injuries associated with the tornado tracking through this hardest hit area, including a few individuals that were thrown 30 to 50 yards from mobile homes and individuals that were in homes that received EF-3 to EF-4 damage.
Wider weather episode
A severe quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) moved through southeast South Carolina during the early morning hours of April 13, 2020 ahead of an approaching cold front. The environment ahead of the QLCS was unusually unstable for this time of day and year, with gulf moisture spreading upper 60 F to near 70 F dewpoints into a warm sector across the Southeast United States and mid level lapse rates around 7 C/km helping produce mixed layer convective available potential energy (MLCAPE) as high as 2000 J/kg across Southeast South Carolina. Within the warm sector, very strong vertical shear associated with a 50 knot plus low and mid-level jet, effective bulk shear around 70 knots, effective storm relative helicity in the 400-600 m2/s2 range, and VAD wind profiles displaying large, curved low-level hodographs were supportive of well organized convection and potentially embedded supercell thunderstorms in a QLCS capable of producing a prolonged path of damaging winds and strong long-track tornadoes. As the QLCS swept through Southeast South Carolina, a few supercell thunderstorms became exceptionally strong while partially breaking away from the main line of thunderstorms, producing widespread wind damage and strong long-track tornadoes.
A total of 13 confirmed tornadoes occurred across Southeast South Carolina, including a long track EF-4 tornado in Hampton County that took the lives of 5 people and injured 60 others along an approximately 24 mile path. The EF-4 tornado was the first to have occurred across Southeast South Carolina and the last to have occurred in the entire state of South Carolina since November 17, 1995, almost 25 years prior. This particular tornado was associated with a storm that produced a destructive path of straight-line wind damage and series of long track and intermittent tornadoes for over 150 miles, beginning in Screven County, Georgia, then continuing northeast across Hampton County, Colleton County, Dorchester County, and Berkeley County, South Carolina before leaving the area and eventually shifting offshore along the South Carolina coast. Two other storms were responsible for the remaining tornadoes across the area, most of which occurred from a single storm occurring across Edisto Island, Seabrook Island and Kiawah Island. Outside the EF-4 tornado in Hampton County, straight-line winds near a passing tornado claimed the life of one individual and injured one in Colleton County, while another tornado caused 6 injuries across Berkeley County.
View location on OpenStreetMap → (32.7045, -81.2899)
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 889068. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.