Tornadoes · United States · South Carolina · 2006

F1 tornado, Walterboro, South Carolina, April 26, 2006

Name: F1 tornado, Walterboro, South Carolina, April 26, 2006
Start: 2006-04-26T22:55:00.000Z
Location: Walterboro, South Carolina

This F1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Colleton County on April 26, 2006, touching down at 6:55 PM EDT and reaching 75 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.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 26, 2006
Touchdown: 6:55 PM EDT (22:55 UTC)
Path length: 1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width: 75 yards (69 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
County: Colleton County
Touchdown point: 32.850, -80.800
Lift-off point: 32.850, -80.780
Record number: 425

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado touched down briefly about 9.5 miles WSW of Walterboro in Colleton County at 655 PM EDT. The tornado touched down several additional times briefly as it traveled ESE 1.5 miles. The tornado lifted for the last time 8 miles WSW of Walterboro at 658 PM EDT. The Tornado uprooted and snapped off numerous large trees with one falling on and crushing a vehicle and another landing on a lawn tractor. A trampoline was tossed 100 feet...several screens and a screen door were blown off a house and could not be found. There was also shingle damage and minor roof damage to the house. A haybarn was also damaged. Winds were estimated between 80 and 90 mph.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 16:40 UTC and running to 00:27 UTC.

Issued (UTC)	Expired	Product	Office
16:40 UTC	00:27 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	CHS
22:31 UTC	23:15 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS
23:10 UTC	23:45 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CHS

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:42 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), 12:00Z

10.9 hours before the tornado, 74 km from the path. April 26, 2006.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 575 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -72 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 100 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1116 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 74 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.2
0-3 km lapse rate: 5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.1 hours after it, 74 km from the path. April 27, 2006.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 324 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -42 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 119 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 639 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -72 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -90 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: -0.1
Supercell composite: -0.5
0-3 km lapse rate: 5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 32 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:54 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Report	Where	County	Remark
20:39 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Hollywood	Charleston, SC	TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN ALONG SCOTT WHITE RD.
20:39 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Ravenel	Charleston, SC	POWERLINES DOWN WITH TREES ON FIRE ALONG HWY 162 NEAR SAVANNAH HWY.
21:45 UTC	HAIL 1	Lobeco	Beaufort, SC	QUARTER SIZE HAIL WAS REPORTED BY THE PUBLIC.
22:25 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	2 E Ridgeland	Jasper, SC	TREES DOWN ON GRAYS HIGHWAY.
22:25 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Ridgeland	Jasper, SC	POWERLINES BLOWN DOWN.
22:25 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Ridgeland	Jasper, SC	TREES DOWN ON GILLISON BRANCH ROAD.
22:30 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	7 Sse Yemassee	Beaufort, SC	TREES DOWN NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF RIVER ROAD AND 17.
22:35 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Cummings	Hampton, SC	TREES DOWN REPORTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT.
22:45 UTC	HAIL 1	Lobeco	Beaufort, SC	QUARTER SIZE HAIL WAS REPORTED BY THE PUBLIC.
22:46 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	3 S Ashepoo	Colleton, SC	POWER LINES AND TREES DOWN ALONG THE 12000 BLOCK OF BENNETTS POINT RD.
22:50 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	5 Sw Wadmalaw Island	Charleston, SC	TREES BLOWN NEAR NEAR WADMALAW ISLAND. TREES SEVERELY DAMAGED SPOTTERS CAR.
22:50 UTC	TSTM WND GST 50	5 W Johns Island	Charleston, SC
22:52 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	1 S Green Pond	Colleton, SC	TREES DOWN NEAR 16000 BLOCK OF ACE BASIN PARKWAY.
22:52 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	1 W Walterboro	Colleton, SC	TREES DOWN NEAR MILE MARKER 51 OF INTERSTATE 95 SOUTH.
22:52 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Neyles	Colleton, SC	POWER LINES AND TREES DOWN ALONG CHARLESTON HWY AND BONNIE DOONE.
22:53 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	2 S Walterboro	Colleton, SC	TREES DOWN NEAR INTERSECTION OF RITTER AND CHEYENNE ROADS.
22:53 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Walterboro	Colleton, SC	TREES DOWN NEAR INTERSECTION OF HICKORY AND HAMPTON ROADS.
22:55 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	2 S Walterboro	Colleton, SC	TREES UPROOTED ON GRAYSON STREET. RELAYED BY WCSC BROADCAST METS.
23:03 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Round O	Colleton, SC	TREES DOWN WITHIN 5000-6000 BLOCK OF JACKSONBORO RD.
23:05 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Cottageville	Colleton, SC	TREES DOWN NEAR 14000 BLOCK OF COTTAGEVILLE HIGHWAY.
23:15 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Summerville	Dorchester, SC	TREES DOWN AND HOMES DAMAGED IN THE CRESTWOOD SUBDIVISION. DAMAGE INCLUDES TRAMPOLINE THROUGH A HOME.
23:16 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	3 E Cottageville	Colleton, SC	NUMEROUS TREES SNAPPED AND 2 BILLBOARDS DAMAGED ALONG HIGHWAY 17A BETWEEN COTTAGEVILLE AND EDISTO RIVER. REPORTED BY FIRE DEPT ENGINEER AND RELAYED BY NWS EMPLOYEE. TIME BASED OFF OF RADAR.
23:23 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	1 Sw Summerville	Dorchester, SC	SEVERAL UPROOTED TREES IN THE CRESTWOOD SUBDIVISION ON SAW MILL ROAD. REPORTED BY WCSC BROADCAST MET. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR.
23:23 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Summerville	Dorchester, SC	POWER POLE FELL ONTO A RESIDENCE ALONG HIGHWAY 61.
23:24 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Oakbrook	Dorchester, SC	SEVERAL TREES DOWN ACROSS OAKBROOK.
23:25 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	Summerville	Dorchester, SC	PARKWAY BUSINESS CENTER NEAR INTERSECTION OF HWY 17A AND HWY 78 HAD ROOF PARTIALLY PEELED BACK. BUILDING IS ON THE CANAL.
23:25 UTC	TSTM WND GST 0	Summerville	Dorchester, SC	SPOTTER REPORTED 30 TO 35 MPH WIND GUSTS NEAR BACONS BRIDGE AND TROLLEY ROAD.
00:05 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	3 Sw Summerville	Dorchester, SC	TREE ON HOUSE AT INTERSECTION OF DORCHESTER ROAD AND BACONS BRIDGE ROAD.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2006 tornado in South Carolina Every tornado in South Carolina since 1950 Warnings in force in South Carolina now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 26, 2006

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
April 26	2:05 PM EDT	F0	Newberry, SC	8.0	60	$70,000
April 26	2:27 PM EDT	F0	Fairfield, SC	12.0	60
April 26	3:23 PM EDT	F0	Kershaw, SC	1.0	60	$10,000
April 26	3:42 PM EDT	F0	Kershaw, SC	1.0	60
April 26	3:45 PM EDT	F0	Clarendon, SC	0.2	60
April 26	7:12 PM EDT	F0	Dorchester, SC	0.1	80
April 26	7:22 PM EDT	F1	Dorchester, SC	0.1	40
April 26	7:54 PM EDT	F1	Berkeley, SC	10.0	200

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.