Tornado in South Carolina, April 16, 1994

Name: Tornado in South Carolina, April 16, 1994
Start: 1994-04-16T01:11
End: 1994-04-16T01:18
Location: South Carolina

April 16, 1994 · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 4
Property damage: $5.0 million
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Chester

When: April 16, 1:11 AM EST to 1:18 AM EST
Where: Chester County, Lowrys
Rating: F2
Path length: 3 mi
Path width: 75 yd
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Injuries: 4 direct, 0 indirect
Property damage: $5.0 million
Coordinates: 34.750, -81.280

A short-lived, but intense, mesocyclone developed along a squall line ahead of a cold front at about 0045 EST and moved into western Chester County. The mesocyclone intensified within a matter of 10 to 20 minutes into a F2 tornado that touched down four miles southwest of Lowrys and moved four miles to near Lowrys before dissipating. Three mobile homes completely disintegrated, three barns crushed, a new pickup truck was completely destoyed, four mobile homes were damaged, four people were injured (one seriously) and another killed. More than 2000 residents lost electrical power due to the tornado. F64M.

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Tornado, Chester	1994-04-16				Direct

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in South Carolina in 1994 Every state in 1994 This day in weather history The tornado archive for South Carolina, 1994 Warnings in South Carolina, April 1994

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 10347036.