EF1 tornado in Charleston County, South Carolina

A National Weather Service (NWS) storm survey team determined that an EF-1 tornado occurred near Awendaw in Charleston County. The tornado touched down in the private community of Wando Farms, where it snapped more than a dozen medium to large pine trees, and snapped large limbs off of very large live oak trees. One resident had the front door of their home blown in. The tornado then moved north, and appears to weaken as it crossed the Wando River and the surrounding marsh area. The tornado then ended near the intersection of Ronlin Farm Road and Woodville Road where it snapped and uprooted several trees around a few homes. The tornado was estimated to be an EF-1, with peak winds of 95 mph, with the highest winds likely near the beginning of the path.

Elsa initially developed as a Tropical Depression over the central tropical Atlantic late in the evening of June 30th, 2021. The system quickly tracked to the west-northwest and became Tropical Storm Elsa on the morning of July 1st, 2021 about 850 miles east-southeast of the Windward Islands. Elsa strengthened to a hurricane and crossed the Windward Islands on July 2nd, 2021. Over the next several days, Elsa moved across the eastern Caribbean and weakened back to a Tropical Storm as it interacted with the higher terrain of the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Cuba. Elsa moved into the eastern Gulf of Mexico late in the evening of July 5th, 2021 and moved north along the west coast of Florida. Elsa made landfall as a Tropical Storm in Taylor County along the north Florida coast on the morning of July 7th, 2021. After landfall, Elsa weakened and tracked northeastward across portions of Georgia and South Carolina through July 8th, 2021. The primary impacts to southeast Georgia and southeast South Carolina included heavy rainfall, a few tornadoes, and gusty winds. Rainfall amounts peaked in the 6-8 inch range across portions of Charleston, Chatham, Beaufort, and Colleton counties. The heavy rainfall did produce some street flooding, causing some roadways to become impassable in and around Savannah and Charleston. Peak winds occurred along the Chatham, Jasper, and Beaufort county coasts where a Weatherflow site in Calibogue Sound measured a 70 knot wind gust. Elsewhere, wind gusts peaked in the 35-45 knot range producing scattered wind damage.