EF1 tornado in Beaufort County, South Carolina

A National Weather Service (NWS) storm survey team determined that an EF-1 tornado occurred near Parris Island in Beaufort County. The tornado path was very short on the southern end of Parris Island, and was likely the same storm that moved into Port Royal several minutes later. However, the storm survey team could not confirm a continuous path from Parris Island northward to the Port Royal area. Many pine trees were snapped in this location, which was directly adjacent to the old Page Field runway complex. The maximum strength of the tornado was estimated to be EF-1, with peak winds of 97 mph.

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.