EF1 tornado, Mt Holly to Cedar Hill, South Carolina, March 15, 2008

1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

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

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

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

6. EF5over 200 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.

Rating

EF1

Date

March 15, 2008

Touchdown

8:25 PM EDT (00:25 UTC)

Lifted

8:26 PM EDT (00:26 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

180 yards (165 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

7

Property damage

$150,000

County

Berkeley County

Touchdown point

33.060, -80.030

Lift-off point

33.060, -80.030

Record number

0803151825-01

A large and intense area of low pressure lifted northward through the central Appalachians, dragging a strong cold front toward southern South Carolina and southeast Georgia. The combination of the approaching cold front along with strong dynamic forcing and plenty of instability resulted in a widespread organized severe weather outbreak across the region.

An EF1 Tornado was confirmed by a Storm Survey conducted by the Charleston, South Carolina National Weather Service Forecast Office in Berkeley County near Mount Holly, South Carolina. The Tornado touched down at 825 PM EDT north of Mount Holly, South Carolina in the Strawberry Hill Mobile Home Park just east of Highway 52. The Tornado tracked 0.6 miles before lifting near Angel Lane. The maximum width of the Tornado was around 180 yards, with maximum sustained winds estimated to be between 100 and 110 mph. Extensive damage occurred to two mobile homes, moderate damage to six mobile homes, and minor damage to six additional mobile homes in the Strawberry Hill Mobile Home Park. There were seven injuries which resulted from the Tornado, with 3 individuals in need of additional treatment transported to a local hospital. Large trees were also observed to have been snapped off at the base or uprooted.

An EF1 Tornado was confirmed by a Storm Survey conducted by the Charleston, South Carolina National Weather Service Forecast Office in Berkeley County near Cainhoy, South Carolina. At 836 PM EDT, a Tornado touched down in a plantation west of Cainhoy Road and continued to track 1.2 miles before lifting. The maximum path width was around 135 yards, with maximum sustained winds estimated between 95 and 105 mph. The Tornado severely damaged a large storage shed and knocked down several large trees as it crossed the plantation. The Tornado then crossed Cainhoy Road and struck the Mount Zion Methodist Church. The church suffered complete failure of the front porch and had a portion of the roof deck uplifted and the steeple knocked over. Portions of the outer brick wall also suffered significant damage. The Tornado then continued into a field behind the church before lifting.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS CHS issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:57 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:36 UTC and running to 02:51 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:41 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 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.

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:24 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in South CarolinaEvery tornado in South Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in South Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

46 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.