Tornadoes · United States · South Carolina · 2022

EF0 tornado, Edisto Beach, South Carolina, July 9, 2022

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Colleton County on July 9, 2022, touching down at 5:29 PM EDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

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

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
July 9, 2022
Touchdown
5:29 PM EDT (21:29 UTC)
Lifted
5:30 PM EDT (21:30 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Colleton County
Touchdown point
32.490, -80.315
Lift-off point
32.490, -80.315
Record number
2207091529-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A broken line of thunderstorms developed and moved across southeast South Carolina in the afternoon hours. A few portions of the line of thunderstorms became severe and produced damaging wind gusts.

Colleton County Emergency Management received a report of a waterspout that moved onshore from the occupants at 902 Palmetto Boulevard on Edisto Beach. A section of metal roofing was tossed into nearby powerlines and caused a transformer to blow.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:29 UTC21:52 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCHS

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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

9.5 hours before the tornado, 54 km from the path. July 9, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Charleston AFB, SC at 12:00Z on 2022-07-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 192 joules per kilogram, CIN -66, lifted condensation level 777 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 12:00Z on 2022-07-09The 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 -14 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 7 knots.1939Sfc1 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
192 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-66 J/kg
Surface CAPE
565 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
777 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-14 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

2.5 hours after it, 54 km from the path. July 10, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Charleston AFB, SC at 00:00Z on 2022-07-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 49 joules per kilogram, CIN -106, lifted condensation level 869 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 2022-07-10The 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 68 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 knots.1939Sfc1 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
49 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-106 J/kg
Surface CAPE
403 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
869 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 71 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:28 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:51 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Wsw BeaufortBeaufort, SCA 911 CALL CENTER REPORTED A TREE DOWN NEAR PARRIS ISLAND GATEWAY AND BURTON CREEK DR. TIME WAS ESTIMATED VIA RADAR DATA.
20:51 UTCTSTM WND GST 581 Ese BeaufortBeaufort, SCA MEMBER OF THE PUBLIC REPORTED A 58 MPH WIND GUST MEASURED BY AN AMBIENT WEATHER STATION SENSOR IN DOWNTOWN BEAUFORT NEAR THE WOODS MEMORIAL BRIDGE. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR DATA.
21:29 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 Ssw Edisto IslandColleton, SCAN EMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTED STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO A RESIDENTAL PROPERTY LOCATED ALONG THE 900 BLOCK OF PALMETTO BLVD. PICTURES SHOW PORTIONS OF A METAL ROOF WERE BLOWN OFF AND THROWN INTO POWER LINES. TIME ESTIMATED VIA
21:38 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Nw Folly FieldBeaufort, SCA 911 CALL CENTER REPORTED A TREE DOWN NEAR MATHEWS DR AND MINGO WAY. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR DATA.
22:07 UTCTSTM WND GST 532 Wsw Folly BeachCharleston, SCTHE WEATHERFLOW SENSOR AT FOLLY SOUTH END MEASURED A 46 KNOT WIND GUST.
22:14 UTCHEAVY RAIN 02 Ssw SummervilleDorchester, SCTHE SUMMERVILLE POLICE DEPARTMENT REPORTED MULTIPLE ROADWAYS FLOODED DUE TO HEAVY RAINS. THEY INCLUDE OLD TROLLEY ROAD NEAR POINTER DRIVE, BACONS BRIDGE RD AT EDISTO DRIVE AND DOLPHIN DRIVE. ROADS ARE IMPASSABLE AND/OR C
22:26 UTCLIGHTNING3 S Edisto IslandColleton, SCA 911 CALL CENTER REPORTED A LIGHTNING STRIKE TO A RESIDENTIAL BUILDING ON THE 1200 BLOCK OF HAMMOCKS WAY WHICH CAUGHT FIRE AND CAUSED STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. EXTENT OF DAMAGE UNKNOWN. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR AND LIGHTNING D
22:53 UTCLIGHTNING1 S HanahanCharleston, SCA 911 CALL CENTER REPORTED A LIGHTNING STRIKE WHICH HIT A TELEPHONE POLE AND CAUGHT FIRE ALONG THE 5900 BLOCK OF RIVERS AVE.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in South CarolinaEvery tornado in South Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in South Carolina nowThe forecast where you are

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.