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EF1 tornado in Berkeley County, South Carolina

Tornado March 15, 2008 · Berkeley County, South Carolina

EF1
Rating
1.2 mi
Path length
135 yd
Path width
$200K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. 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

An EF1 Tornado was confirmed by a Storm Survey conducted by the Charleston, South Carolina National Weather Service Forecast Office in Berkeley County near Cainhoy, South Carolina. At 836 PM EDT, a Tornado touched down in a plantation west of Cainhoy Road and continued to track 1.2 miles before lifting. The maximum path width was around 135 yards, with maximum sustained winds estimated between 95 and 105 mph. The Tornado severely damaged a large storage shed and knocked down several large trees as it crossed the plantation. The Tornado then crossed Cainhoy Road and struck the Mount Zion Methodist Church. The church suffered complete failure of the front porch and had a portion of the roof deck uplifted and the steeple knocked over. Portions of the outer brick wall also suffered significant damage. The Tornado then continued into a field behind the church before lifting.

The wider storm

A large and intense area of low pressure lifted northward through the central Appalachians, dragging a strong cold front toward southern South Carolina and southeast Georgia. The combination of the approaching cold front along with strong dynamic forcing and plenty of instability resulted in a widespread organized severe weather outbreak across the region.

Began near Cedar Hill (33.0500, -79.8500).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 90490. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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