Tornadoes · United States · South Carolina · 2004

F0 tornado, Hardeeville, South Carolina, September 7, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Jasper County on September 7, 2004, touching down at 3:30 AM EDT and reaching 50 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
September 7, 2004
Touchdown
3:30 AM EDT (07:30 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Jasper County
Touchdown point
32.330, -81.020
Lift-off point
32.330, -81.020
Record number
1671

What the Weather Service recorded

Hurricane Frances made land fall over the Florida Panhandle and continued to track in a generally northward direction into Georgia, before turning more to the northeast. This track placed the Charleston County Warning Area in the favorable right side of the remnants of Frances which produced numerous tornadoes and areas of straight line wind damage over southeast Georgia and south coastal South Carolina. Several Georgia counties also experienced flash flooding as there were isolated rainfall amounts of 5 to 8 inches over a 24 to 36 hour period. This was on top of already saturated ground from heavy rains during the month of August. The South Carolina counties experienced more nuisance type flooding as the rainfall amounts were not as high as what occurred in southeast Georgia.

A tornado knocked down trees.

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

What forecasters said that day

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

NWS Charleston, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at Sep 6, 9:11 PM EDT, 6 hours 19 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 6, 9:11 PM EDT, 6 hours 19 minutes before
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Hazardous weather outlook, Sep 6, 7:51 PM EDT, 7 hours 39 minutes before
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In the hours before

Local storm report, Sep 6, 10:54 PM EDT, 4 hours 36 minutes before
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Local storm report, Sep 6, 11:59 PM EDT, 3 hours 31 minutes before
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Special weather statement, Sep 7, 12:34 AM EDT, 2 hours 56 minutes before
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Special weather statement, Sep 7, 2:30 AM EDT, 1 hour before
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The surface observations

Savannah - Hilton Head (SAV), 28 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in South CarolinaEvery tornado in South Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in South Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 7, 2004

53 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 73:20 AM EDTF0Calhoun, SC0.5100
September 73:55 AM EDTF0Dorchester, SC0.540
September 74:46 AM EDTF2Richland, SC2.54403$100,000
September 75:20 AM EDTF0Allendale, SC2.040
September 75:25 AM EDTF1Richland, SC1.0200$300,000
September 75:40 AM EDTF0Allendale, SC1.040
September 76:17 AM EDTF0Richland, SC0.5100
September 76:35 AM EDTF0Barnwell, SC0.5100
September 77:14 AM EDTF0Aiken, SC0.5100
September 77:28 AM EDTF2Sumter, SC4.05003$1.7 million
September 77:35 AM EDTF1Jasper, SC4.075
September 78:40 AM EDTF1Lee, SC4.0440
September 79:10 AM EDTF0Lee, SC0.5100
September 79:18 AM EDTF0Kershaw, SC3.0400
September 79:35 AM EDTF1Kershaw, SC5.0440
September 79:48 AM EDTF0Calhoun, SC0.5100
September 79:48 AM EDTF0Clarendon, SC0.5100
September 710:00 AM EDTF0Marion, FL0.575
September 710:03 AM EDTF1Sumter, SC3.0400
September 710:40 AM EDTF1Lancaster, SC2.0300
September 710:45 AM EDTF0Putnam, FL0.575
September 711:15 AM EDTF3Kershaw, SC7.08801
September 710:43 AM CDTF2York, SC to NC3.0200$10,000
September 712:00 PM EDTF0Saint Johns, FL0.575
September 712:35 PM EDTF0Darlington, SC1.350$70,000
September 712:40 PM EDTF1Chesterfield, SC8.0440
September 712:45 PM EDTF0Orangeburg, SC0.5100
September 71:10 PM EDTF0Darlington, SC0.750$10,000
September 71:35 PM EDTF0Duval, FL1.01
September 71:38 PM EDTF1Columbus, NC10.040$700,000
September 71:40 PM EDTF0Saint Johns, FL0.575$50,000
September 72:05 PM EDTF1Marlboro, SC5.0100$250,000
September 72:24 PM EDTF1Anson, NC2.075
September 72:27 PM EDTF1Marlboro, SC0.325$60,000
September 72:47 PM EDTF0Robeson, NC0.125
September 73:11 PM EDTF1Darlington, SC0.130$10,000
September 73:30 PM EDTF1Allendale, SC4.5100
September 73:50 PM EDTF0Chesterfield, SC1.0150
September 73:53 PM EDTF1Robeson, NC4.240$200,000
September 73:56 PM EDTF0Hoke, NC0.525
September 74:00 PM EDTF0Fairfield, SC16.0400
September 74:20 PM EDTF0Bamberg, SC0.5100
September 75:45 PM EDTF0Florence, SC1.030$2,000
September 76:10 PM EDTF0Robeson, NC1.640$3,000
September 77:11 PM EDTF0Dillon, SC1.330$100,000
September 77:30 PM EDTF0Anderson, SC1.250$2,000
September 77:50 PM EDTF0Duval, FL1.01
September 78:15 PM EDTF1Chester, SC0.550$100,000
September 78:23 PM EDTF2Chesterfield, SC7.04405
September 79:05 PM EDTF0Marlboro, SC0.525$10,000
September 79:05 PM EDTF0Allendale, SC0.540
September 79:20 PM EDTF0Allendale, SC1.050
September 712:00 AM EDTF1Union, SC4.0225$50,000

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.