Tornadoes · United States · South Carolina · 2002

F0 tornado, Goose Creek, South Carolina, May 4, 2002

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Berkeley County on May 4, 2002, touching down at 9:10 PM EDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

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

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    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
F0
Date
May 4, 2002
Touchdown
9:10 PM EDT (01:10 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Berkeley County
Touchdown point
32.980, -80.050
Lift-off point
32.980, -80.050
Record number
609

What the Weather Service recorded

A cluster of strong thunderstorms developed over central and northern Dorchester County. These thunderstorms were moving to the east at 50 mph. Several weak tornadoes developed in this cluster of thunderstorms. There were numerous reports of funnel clouds over central and northern Dorchester County and lower Berkeley County. When the funnels did come in contact with the ground, it was only for short periods of time.

A brief tornado touch down pushed over several trees.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:20 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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

1.2 hours before the tornado, 10 km from the path. May 5, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Charleston AFB, SC at 00:00Z on 2002-05-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 788 joules per kilogram, CIN -51, lifted condensation level 568 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2002-05-05The 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 167 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
788 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-51 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1725 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
568 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
167 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
248 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
8.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), 12:00Z

10.8 hours after it, 10 km from the path. May 5, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Charleston AFB, SC at 12:00Z on 2002-05-05Temperature 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 -1403, lifted condensation level 483 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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 12:00Z on 2002-05-05The 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 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 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
-1403 J/kg
Surface CAPE
14 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
483 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Charleston (CHS), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:38 UTC73.471.670° 5 kt1017.9
23:56 UTC747150° 5 kt1018.3
00:18 UTC73.469.890° 4 kt1018.3
00:56 UTC726930° 9 kt1019
01:11 UTC71.666.240° 6 kt1019TS
01:46 UTC71.6680° 0 kt1019.6
01:56 UTC716810° 5 kt1020
02:36 UTC69.866.2360° 6 kt1020.3
02:46 UTC6866.2360° 7 kt1020.3
02:56 UTC6867350° 8 kt1020.7

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

The radar

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:09 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 2002 tornado in South CarolinaEvery tornado in South Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in South Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 4, 2002

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 48:30 PM EDTF0Dorchester, SC0.225
May 48:55 PM EDTF0Dorchester, SC0.225
May 48:09 PM CDTF0Tom Green, TX0.530
May 48:12 PM CDTF0Concho, TX1.050
May 48:23 PM CDTF0Concho, TX2.075
May 48:44 PM CDTF0Concho, TX2.050
May 49:18 PM CDTF0Fisher, TX1.040
May 410:30 PM CDTF0McCulloch, TX3.0150$20,000
May 411:15 PM CDTF0Scurry, TX0.5200$10,000
May 411:45 PM CDTF0Mitchell, TX0.8250$50,000
May 412:03 AM CDTF0Mitchell, TX0.1150

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.