Camden, SC F3 Tornado – September 7, 2004

SPC Stats

Path length: 7 miles

Width: 880 yards

Fatalities: 0

Injuries: 1

Rating: F3

County: Kershaw

Per the Tropical Cyclone Report on Hurricane Frances via the National Hurricane Center (NHC): “Frances was a Cape Verde-type hurricane that reached a peak intensity of category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. It affected the Bahamas as a category 3 hurricane and the Florida east coast as a category 2 hurricane.” The Florida landfall occurred on September 5, 2004. The hurricane weakened to a tropical storm and emerged back over water into the Gulf of Mexico. A final landfall occurred near the mouth of the Aucilla River in the Florida Big Bend on September 6. It then weakened and moved NNE through the SE and Applachian Region.

The MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of Hurricane Frances on August 31, 2004 at 17:55 UTC (1:55 PM EDT). At the time this image was taken Frances was located approximately 230 km (140 miles) north-northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico and was moving towards the west near 26 km/hr (16 mph). Maximum sustained winds were near 225 km/hr (140 mph) and the storm's minimum central pressure was down to 942 millibars. http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=6584

Per the NHC report, “A total of 101 tornadoes have been reported in association with Frances – 23 in Florida, 7 in Georgia, 45 in South Carolina, 11 in North Carolina, and 15 in Virginia. Many of the tornadoes occurred in an outbreak over South and North Carolina on 7 September.” We look at one of those tornadoes in this summary.

An estimated F3 tornado occurred in Kershaw County, SC. It is the strongest tornado recorded from the outbreak on September 7. Several mobile homes were destroyed. Cinder block horse stables at a horse farm were severely damaged. Per Storm Data, “a large horse trailer was lifted up and placed on top of the stable.” There was 1 injury reported and no fatalities.