Tornadoes · United States · South Carolina · 1998

F1 tornado, Hardeeville, South Carolina, April 9, 1998

This F1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Jasper County on April 9, 1998, touching down at 6:22 AM EDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

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

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

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

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    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. F3158 to 206 mph

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

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

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

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
April 9, 1998
Touchdown
6:22 AM EDT (10:22 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000
County
Jasper County
Touchdown point
32.280, -81.120
Lift-off point
32.280, -81.100
Record number
98

What the Weather Service recorded

Numerous trees uprooted or snapped off, shingles taken off of nearby roofs, and several other buildings damaged. This F1 tornado was spawned by the same supercell that produced the F3 tornado in Bryan County, Georgia that moved into western Effingham County and lifted with no further touchdown until the Hardeeville area.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), 00:00Z

10.4 hours before the tornado, 125 km from the path. April 9, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Charleston AFB, SC at 00:00Z on 1998-04-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -26197, lifted condensation level 942 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Charleston AFB, SC at 00:00Z on 1998-04-09The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 176 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 62 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-26197 J/kg
Surface CAPE
16 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
942 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
62 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
176 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
320 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Savannah - Hilton Head (SAV), 19 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 42 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 10:22 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in South CarolinaEvery tornado in South Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in South Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 9, 1998

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 95:45 AM EDTF3Bryan, GA8.0440217$2.7 million
April 96:35 AM EDTF2Long, GA24.5400431$38 million
April 91:45 PM EDTF0Summit, OH0.330$2,000
April 91:45 PM EDTF0Lorain, OH0.130
April 92:30 PM EDTF0Portage, OH0.130
April 92:30 PM EDTF1Beaver, PA0.250$10,000
April 93:28 PM EDTF0Trumbull, OH0.130
April 94:00 PM EDTF0City of Chesapeake, VA5.050$30,000

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.