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EF1 tornado in Chester County, South Carolina

Tornado May 5, 2020 · Chester County, South Carolina

EF1
Rating
4.6 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
$25K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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

NWS storm survey found the path of an EF1 tornado that touched down just off Highway 321 near Gregory Rd. The tornado initially moved east/southeast crossing Old Columbia Rd and Ross Rd but turned in a more southeasterly direction between Ross Rd and Boyd Rd. Numerous trees were snapped or uprooted and large limbs snapped in this area. Structural damage was confined to some siding stripped off a home on Old Columbia Rd. The tornado continued to cause primarily tree damage as it moved across Boyd Rd and Aiken Chapel Rd although a mobile home was moved off its foundation and received moderate roof damage on Aiken Chapel Rd. The tornado continued southeast before lifting in the area around Discovery Rd. However another tornado later developed about 5 miles southeast of this location.

The wider storm

For the second day in a row, thunderstorms, including severe severe storms developed across the mountains and in the vicinity of a stationary front and moved southeast across portions of upstate South Carolina from late afternoon into the evening. In addition to large hail and locally damaging winds, a couple of tornadoes developed across Chester County.

Began near Mc Keown (34.6440, -81.1900).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 895059. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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