Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina

Tornadoes in Columbus County, North Carolina

34 tornadoes have crossed Columbus County since 1950, 1 of them surveyed so far this year and still preliminary, 11th of the 99 counties in North Carolina with a tornado on record, an average of one every 2.2 years. They have killed 8 people and injured 159. None was rated F4 or above. Before 1950, Grazulis's record of significant tornadoes has 2 more crossing the county, back to 1875.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The United States rated tornadoes on Ted Fujita’s F scale until 31 January 2007 and on the Enhanced Fujita scale after it. Both run from 0 to 5, and both rate the damage rather than measure the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F0 / EF040 to 72 mph on the F scale, 65 to 85 mph on the EF scale

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F1 / EF173 to 112 mph on the F scale, 86 to 110 mph on the EF scale

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2 / EF2113 to 157 mph on the F scale, 111 to 135 mph on the EF scale

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3 / EF3158 to 206 mph on the F scale, 136 to 165 mph on the EF scale

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4 / EF4207 to 260 mph on the F scale, 166 to 200 mph on the EF scale

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5 / EF5261 to 318 mph on the F scale, over 200 mph on the EF scale

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Now

Tornadoes
34
Deaths
8
Injuries
159
F4 and above
0
Worst on record
F3, November 16, 2006

The deadliest in Columbus County

  1. F3, Columbus County, North CarolinaNovember 16, 20068 killed, 20 injured

The strongest

  1. F3, Columbus County, North CarolinaNovember 16, 2006F3, 2.1 mi (3 km)
  2. F3, Columbus County, North CarolinaOctober 9, 1950F3, 2.0 mi (3 km)
  3. F2, Columbus, Bladen and Pender counties, North CarolinaOctober 4, 1964F2, 54.6 mi (88 km)
  4. F2, Horry and Columbus counties, South Carolina and North CarolinaMarch 28, 1984F2, 16.0 mi (26 km)
  5. F2, Horry and Columbus counties, South Carolina and North CarolinaDecember 1, 1967F2, 14.3 mi (23 km)
  6. F2, Columbus County, North CarolinaJune 7, 1983F2, 6.0 mi (10 km)
  7. F2, Columbus County, North CarolinaNovember 7, 1995F2, 0.7 mi (1 km)

Every year with a tornado

The 26 years of the 76 in the record with a tornado in Columbus County. Each year links to every tornado in North Carolina that year.

YearTornadoesDeathsInjuriesStrongest
20261EF1
20242EF0
20211EF0
20203EF1
20191EF0
20181EF1
20151EF1
20122EF0
20113EF1
20081EF0
20062820F3
20051F1
20041F1
20031F0
19981F0
19961F0
19951122F2
199123F1
198418F2
19831F2
19751F1
197412F1
196711F2
19641F2
19591F1
195013F3

Every tornado that crossed Columbus County

34 tornadoes, newest first. 2 of them touched down in a neighboring state and ran in, so the record files them under that state rather than North Carolina. The 1 at the top is this year's, from the surveying office rather than SPC's published database, and its rating is marked as preliminary.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 9, 20263:23 PM EDTEF1Columbus1.4100
May 14, 20248:03 PM EDTEF0Columbus6.040$4,000
May 14, 20247:52 PM EDTEF0Columbus2.240$20,000
June 2, 20215:22 PM EDTEF0Columbus0.735$200,000
December 24, 202012:16 PM ESTEF0Columbus0.120$1,000
October 11, 20205:51 PM EDTEF1Columbus5.530$60,000
April 13, 20208:10 AM EDTEF1Columbus0.6100$100,000
September 5, 20196:37 AM EDTEF0Columbus2.150$30,000
September 16, 201810:38 PM EDTEF1Columbus0.3100$250,000
May 21, 20154:13 PM EDTEF1Columbus5.2100$75,000
October 1, 20126:15 PM EDTEF0Columbus2.125$10,000
October 1, 20125:22 PM EDTEF0Columbus0.330$4,000
April 28, 20113:43 PM EDTEF0Columbus0.620$27,000
April 16, 20116:05 PM EDTEF1Columbus1.150$35,000
April 16, 20115:33 PM EDTEF0Columbus0.225
March 15, 20086:16 PM EDTEF0Columbus0.010
November 16, 20066:37 AM ESTF3Columbus2.1300820$500,000
April 17, 20065:05 PM EDTF1Columbus1.015$10,000
May 20, 20056:10 PM EDTF1Columbus2.650$200,000
September 7, 20041:38 PM EDTF1Columbus10.040$700,000
July 2, 200312:06 PM EDTF0Columbus0.730$10,000
March 8, 19984:10 PM ESTF0Columbus0.330$20,000
April 26, 19962:45 PM EDTF0Columbus0.220
November 7, 19955:30 PM ESTF2Columbus0.740122$50,000 to $500,000
March 3, 199110:47 AM ESTF1Columbus1.5733$50,000 to $500,000
March 3, 199110:24 AM ESTF0Columbus0.550
March 28, 19848:35 PM CSTF2Horry to NC16.03538$50,000 to $500,000
June 7, 198310:45 PM EDTF2Columbus6.0450$50,000 to $500,000
May 24, 19758:25 PM EDTF1Columbus0.110$500 to $5,000
September 6, 19743:30 PM EDTF1Columbus0.1102$50,000 to $500,000
December 1, 19676:30 PM GMT-6F2Horry to NC14.3931$5,000 to $50,000
October 4, 19647:15 PM GMT-4F2Columbus54.650$50,000 to $500,000
June 2, 19593:00 PM GMT-4F1Columbus0.110$5,000 to $50,000
October 9, 19503:15 AM GMT-5F3Columbus2.08803$50,000 to $500,000

Columbus County before 1950

Before 1950 the record is Thomas P. Grazulis’s list of significant tornadoes: those rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody. 2 of them crossed Columbus County, killing 6. They are not in the figures above, which are SPC's from 1950.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
December 1, 19429:00 PM ESTF2S Whiteville/Bolton, NC15.9300130
March 20, 18753:30 PM ESTF3N Sumter/S Cartersville/S Florence/S Marion, SC/Tabor City, NC83.6400530

About the record before 1950

Significant tornadoes only
Grazulis listed tornadoes rated F2 or stronger, and weaker ones that killed somebody. Most tornadoes are weaker than F2, so the list holds a fraction of the tornadoes that happened.
The early years are thin
A tornado is on record only where somebody saw it and wrote it down. The count rises through the 1800s with settlement and newspapers, not with the weather.
Rated from accounts
Grazulis rated each tornado decades later from newspaper reports, Weather Bureau records and local histories, not from a damage survey.
The tracks are reconstructed
Tornado Archive drew each path through the places Grazulis names, most often as a straight line from the first to the last. A track can miss a town it hit, and a tornado with one named place is a point. The counties are today’s.
A separate record
SPC’s database, from 1950, counts every confirmed tornado of any strength. The two are kept apart on every page and never added together.

Nearby

Warnings in force in Columbus CountyThe forecast for Columbus CountyThe live radar over Columbus CountyEvery county in North Carolina

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center. Before 1950: Thomas P. Grazulis, Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991 and Significant Tornadoes 1880-1989, as digitized by Tornado Archive (Maas and others, 2024). Public domain. Counties assigned by this site from today’s NWS county lines.