South Carolina breaks another weather record by Kirsty McCabe
After an unprecedented six tropical storms affected South Carolina in 2004, it comes as little surprise that the state has broken another weather record. Over 80 tornadoes were recorded in 2004, shattering the previous record of 54 twisters in 1995. South Carolina averages around 12 tornadoes a year.
All but eight of the 84 tornadoes came in less than seven weeks, according to the State Climatology Office and the National Weather Service. “It was an abnormal number of tornadoes,” said Jerry Harrison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston. “But we just happened to be in the favoured quadrant”, as most tornadoes form in the right front part of a storm.
The storm that caused the most tornadoes was ex-Hurricane Frances, which triggered 46 tornadoes in all, with twisters recorded in 28 of the state's 46 counties. On 7th September, Frances spawned 41 tornadoes in one day, breaking the previous daily record of 23 twisters from Tropical Storm Beryl in 1994.
Other tropical storms didn’t form quite so many tornadoes. The remnants of Hurricane Jeanne caused 17 tornadoes on 27 September, ex-Hurricane Ivan created seven twisters on 16 September, and the remnants of Tropical Storm Bonnie caused three tornadoes on 12 August.
Most of the twisters were weak and didn’t stay on the ground for long, which is quite common with tornadoes formed from tropical storms.
|
|
