Did tornadoes touch down in northeast South Carolina during Hurricane Helene? What we know
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Did any tornadoes touchdown when Hurricane Helene grazed past the Grand Strand and Pee Dee regions?
The short answer is yes, according to Steven Pfaff, meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service in Wilmington, North Carolina.
In total, he said the area of South Carolina his station monitors had four tornadoes touch down during Hurricane Helene last week.
Two of the tornadoes touched down in Georgetown County, and two touched down just over the Horry County line in Marion County, he said.
One of the tornadoes that touched down was in the Hadley’s Landing area near Pawleys Island, he said. That was the only tornado Pfaff said they were unable to get an EF reading on because of the location of the tornado’s touchdown deep in the marshland.
The EF, or Enhanced Fujita Scale, measures a tornado based on wind speeds and how much damage they cause, according to the National Weather Service. The system was first used in February 2007. Tornadoes are ranked on an EF scale of zero to five, with five being the most severe.
The two tornadoes that touched down in Marion County, one was near the Brittons Neck area and the second was south of the City of Marion, during Hurricane Helene. Both had an EF reading of zero, Pfaff said.
The Georgetown County tornadoes were the one near Pawleys Island, which was the unknown EF, and then one southeast of Andrews, with an EF of zero.
To his knowledge, no severe damage or life-threatening injuries were caused by the tornadoes, he said.
This story was originally published October 3, 2024 at 10:07 AM.
