COLUMBIA, S.C. — The National Weather Service in Columbia confirmed Thursday afternoon that an EF1 tornado hit near the Fairfield County Airport Tuesday. The tornado had peak winds of 105 mph.
The brief tornado touched down near Rion in Fairfield County on Tuesday. This tornado was associated with a line of severe thunderstorms that moved across the Midlands, producing numerous reports of wind damage. The strongest part of the tornado occurred near the Fairfield County Airport.
According to the NWS survey team, the tornado started near Hard Rock Rd., uprooting and snapping numerous trees as it moved northeast across Ridge Rd and Granite Lane.
The tornado then intensified to EF1 strength as it crossed Rion Rd. and Stony Cir., snapping and uprooting many large hardwood trees and causing minor damage to siding on a couple of homes.
The tornado then continued its track east across the Fairfield County Airport where damage occurred to a total of five planes and one hangar.
One plane was totaled after the tornado removed it from its tie-down ropes and flipped it. The plane was tossed 100 yards into a field between runways and one of its wings was removed.
The tie-down ropes were still in place when the survey occurred with pieces from the plane still attached. Security camera video at the airport documented this event. The hangar that was damaged had a portion of two external walls pushed outward by the tornado.
The tornado then continued east across State Highway 269, Old Ruff Rd., US Highway 321 South and Oxner Rd., mainly producing EF0 damage with trees uprooted and snapped.
One large tree fell on a home on US Highway 321 South, causing substantial roof damage.
The survey team said, the tornado then dissipated near Little Cedar Creek.
After the tornado dissipated, a large area of straight-line winds produced damage along Highway 34, north of Gumsprings Rd., where a large tree fell on a mobile home, displacing it from its foundation.
The straight-line winds produced additional tree damage east to I-77.
The EF Scale is the Enhanced Fujita Scale that classifies tornadoes into the following categories:
- EF0: weak, winds 65-85 mph
- EF1: weak, winds 86-110 mph
- EF2: strong, winds 111-135 mph
- EF3: strong, winds 136-165 mph
- EF4: violent, winds 166-200 mph
- EF5: violent, winds greater than 200 mph
