South Carolina, 2006

Tornado in South Carolina, May 14, 2006

May 14, 2006 · NWS ILM · 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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$250,000
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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Wilmington, NC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 14, 2:15 PM EST, 2 hours 40 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 14, 2:15 PM EST, 2 hours 40 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON NC
315 PM EDT SUN MAY 14 2006

.SHORT TERM /TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY/...STILL UNDER SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM WATCH NUMBER 350 UNTIL 00Z FOR OUR WESTERN COUNTIES. NO
BIG DEVELOPMENTS OVER OUR CWA YET...LOOKS LIKE LACK OF MOISTURE AND
EXTENSIVE CLOUD COVER HAVE LIMITED SEVERE POTENTIAL DESPITE OTHER
VERY FAVORABLE FACTORS. PLUS MARINE LAYER MAY HAVE A HAND IN
LIMITING DEVELOPMENT ESPECIALLY FOR THE COASTAL COUNTIES. LATEST NAM
HINTS AT STRONGER DEVELOPMENTS LATER THIS EVENING AND WITH CONTINUED
STRONG SHEAR WOULD NOT RULE OUT ISOLATED TORNADIC DEVELOPMENT AT
SOME POINT THEN. FOR NOW LATEST RADAR DATA SHOWS WE ARE IN FOR A BIT
OF A LULL. FOR TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY WENT WITH A STRAIGHT BLEND OF
GFS AND NAM NUMBERS DUE TO LOW CONFIDENCE IN EXACT TIMING OF EITHER.
LIKELY POPS TONIGHT...MAINLY BEFORE MIDNIGHT. ANOTHER ROUND OF
SHOWERS KICKED OFF BY SHORT WAVE PASSAGE ON MONDAY FOR CHANCE POPS.
MORE SHORT WAVES MOVE THRU ON TUESDAY BUT LIMITED MOISTURE WILL
LIMIT PRECIP TO JUST ISOLATED SHOWERS.

&&

.LONG TERM /WEDNESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY/...CONSENSUS IS TO GO WITH GFS
AND HAVE LEANED ON THIS GUIDANCE AS LONG RANGE HPC GRIDS WERE MOSTLY
MISSING TODAY. FOR WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY BROAD LOW PRESSURE STAYS
WELL NORTH OVER NEW ENGLAND/CANADIAN MARITIMES WHILE RIDGE FLATTENS
TO THE SOUTH OVER THE GULF OF MEXICO. SHORT WAVES MOVING ACROSS TOP
OF FLATTENED RIDGE LEAVES OPEN POSSIBILITY OF SHOWERS EACH
DAY...MAINLY SLIGHT CHANCE DUE TO LIMITED MOISTURE. COLD FRONT
SETTLES ACROSS MID ATLANTIC REGION FRIDAY AND SATURDAY BEFORE
PUSHING SOUTH ON SUNDAY.

&&

.AVIATION...STRONG SOUTHWEST FLOW WILL CONTINUE AHEAD OF SLOW MOVING
COLD FRONT. BRIEF SHRA/TSRA WILL BE POSSIBLE THROUGH 03Z...BUT
COVERAGE IS NOT EXPECTED TO BE WIDESPREAD AND ANY LIMITING
VISIBILITIES OR CEILINGS WILL BE SHORT LIVED. A FEW SHOWERS MAY
LINGER AFTER MIDNIGHT...BUT WILL NOT BE OF ANY SIGNIFICANCE.

&&

.MARINE...PG TO CONTINUE TO TIGHTEN WITH THE APPROACH OF THE CF.
MIXING JUST ABOUT MAXED OUT NOW SO SPEEDS WILL NOT INC ALL THAT MUCH
AND SCA NOT ANTICIPATED BUT WILL ADVERTISE SCEC FOR ANOTHER PD OR
TWO. FETCH PARALLEL TO THE COAST HELPING TO KEEP SCA HEIGHT SEAS
OUTSIDE OF 20 NM THROUGH THE PD AS WELL. A VEER TO W ON TUE BEHIND
THE FRONT ON TUES. OFFSHORE WINDS WILL PERSIST FOR THE NEXT SEVERAL
DAYS AS THE UPPER LOW IN THE GREAT LAKES ONLY SLOWLY LIFTS OUT BUT
SOME MORE ENERGY MOVES IN BEHIND. HIGH PRESSURE AT THE SFC WILL BE
CONFINED TO THE NRN GOMEX, KEEPING THE WINDS LOCALLY OUT OF THE WEST
FOR QUITE SOME TIME.

&&

.ILM WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
NC...NONE.
SC...NONE.
MARINE...NONE.

&&

SHORT TERM/LONG TERM...REK
AVIATION...III
MARINE...MBB
Hazardous weather outlook, May 14, 2:47 AM EST, 14 hours 8 minutes before
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON NC
347 AM EDT SUN MAY 14 2006

AMZ250-252-254-256-NCZ087-096-097-099>101-SCZ017-023-024-032>034-
039-046-150800-
SURF CITY TO CAPE FEAR NC OUT 20 NM-
CAPE FEAR NC TO LITTLE RIVER INLET SC OUT 20 NM-
LITTLE RIVER INLET TO MURRELLS INLET SC OUT 20 NM-
MURRELLS INLET TO SOUTH SANTEE RIVER SC OUT 20 NM-ROBESON-BLADEN-
PENDER-COLUMBUS-BRUNSWICK-NEW HANOVER-MARLBORO-DARLINGTON-DILLON-
FLORENCE-MARION-HORRY-WILLIAMSBURG-GEORGETOWN-
347 AM EDT SUN MAY 14 2006

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF THE ADJACENT
COASTAL WATERS...SOUTHEAST NORTH CAROLINA AND NORTHEAST SOUTH
CAROLINA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE THIS AFTERNOON AS STRONG JET
STREAM DYNAMICS MOVE THROUGH THE REGION. THE PRIMARY THREAT WILL
BE LARGE HAIL AND A FEW DAMAGING WIND GUSTS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED THIS AFTERNOON.

15

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 14, 12:19 PM EST, 4 hours 36 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Special weather statement, May 14, 12:26 PM EST, 4 hours 29 minutes before
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>
Local storm report, May 14, 4:54 PM EST, 1 minute before
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON NC
554 PM EDT SUN MAY 14 2006

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0550 PM     HAIL             DARLINGTON              34.30N 79.87W
05/14/2006  M0.88 INCH       DARLINGTON         SC   LAW ENFORCEMENT

            NICKEL SIZE HAIL OCCURRING AT DARLINGTON POLICE STATION

&&

III

The radar

The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:57 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Florence

When
May 14, 4:55 PM EST to 5:00 PM EST
Where
Florence County, Florence
Rating
F1
Path length
0.3 mi
Path width
15 yd
Property damage
$250,000
Reported by
NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates
34.200, -79.767

National Weather Service conducted a Storm Survey and concluded an F1 tornado with winds estimated around 100 mph snapped and uprooted trees and several buildings sustained structural damage along a path 600 yards long and 15 yards wide in an industrial area along Koppers Rd near Southeastern Steel and Koppers plants. Three 18 wheeler tractor trailers were flipped and all of the windows in an office building were blown out.

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

More

Every storm in South Carolina in 2006Every state in 2006This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for South Carolina, 2006Warnings in South Carolina, May 2006

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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5510642.