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EF2 tornado in Abbeville County, South Carolina

Tornado May 3, 2021 · Abbeville County, South Carolina

EF2
Rating
29.4 mi
Whole path
150 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$115K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Abbeville County → Greenwood County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 a significant tornado that began just of Russel Lake on Harpers Ferry Rd. Damage was initially limited to downed trees and limbs as the tornado moved east northeast. The first structural damage occurred along Tater Hill Rd, where several outbuildings were heavily damaged and a man was injured when he was thrown from his back porch. The tornado continued east northeast from there, entering a heavily wooded area and crossing a finger of Russell Lake before emerging on Highway 81 just south of Tom Young Bridge Rd. Damage was limited to sporadic tree damage along this section of the path. The tornado remained weak as it continued east before intensifying after crossing Monterey Rd, as much of the roof was removed from a frame home on Fairfield Church Rd. The tornado weakened again from there, with damage limited primarily to uprooted hardwoods and snapped softwoods as it crossed Highway 71, 28, and 20, passing just north of the Abbeville city limits. The tornado intensified again after crossing Old Douglas Mill Rd, as multiple small to medium hardwoods were snapped 10 to 20 feet above the ground along portions of Stevenson Rd and Old Hodges Rd. The tornado weakened again east of this location, with additional EF1 tree damage observed before it moved into Greenwood County near Johns Creek Rd.

The wider storm

Multiple supercell thunderstorms developed across upstate South Carolina during the afternoon. Two tornadoes developed across the Piedmont, including one significant tornado that produced the longest tornado track in the Upstate in almost 30 years.

Began near Lowndesville (34.1740, -82.6960).

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 962594. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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