Carolinas Tornado Outbreak
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| Date of tornado outbreak: | March 28, 1984 |
| Duration1: | ~ 10 hours |
| Maximum rated tornado2: | F4 tornado |
| Tornadoes caused: | 24 |
| Damages: | Unknown |
| Fatalities: | 57 deaths, 1248 injuries |
| Areas affected: | Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia |
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1Time from first tornado to last tornado |
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The Carolinas Tornado Outbreak of March 28, 1984 was the most destructive to sweep through the two states since the Enigma tornado outbreak struck 100 years and 1 month earlier, according to NOAA and NCDC public records.
Weather records from March 28 indicate that an earlier tornado watch had been issued covering Northern Alabama and Georgia, and small tornadoes were reported in Barrow County (2:25 P.M., Eastern Standard Time) and Henry County (2:30 P.M., EST) in north Georgia. The first severe reports from North Carolina - golf-ball sized hail reports from Macon County, NC also occurred at this time. Severe storms began entering Western South Carolina by mid-afternoon, and tornado watches had been issued for most of South Carolina, North Carolina and a portion of Virginia.
| Confirmed Total |
Confirmed F0 |
Confirmed F1 |
Confirmed F2 |
Confirmed F3 |
Confirmed F4 |
Confirmed F5 |
| 24 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 0 |
Contents |
[edit] Confirmed Tornadoes
Sources: [1]
| F# | Location | County | Time (EST) | Path length | Damage | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | ||||||
| F1 | Barrow | Barrow | 03:25 | 12 miles |
1 Injury. Tornado in Barrow County W of Athens. | |
| F0 | Henry | Henry | 04:30 | 1 mile |
Very brief touchdown SE of Atlanta. | |
| South Carolina | ||||||
| F1 | Due West | Abbeville | 04:30 | 3 miles |
24 Injuries. Brief touchdown. | |
| F0 | Ware Shoals | Laurens | 04:40 | 10 miles |
43 Injuries. Tornado moved between Ware Shoals and Laurens. | |
| F2 | 1st Newberry | Newberry | 05:20 | 23 miles |
1 Death, 38 Injuries. Large F2 tornado moved NE through downtown Newberry. The path of this storm was 3/4 of a mile in width in places. | |
| F3 | 2nd Newberry | Newberry | 05:40 | 19 miles |
10 Injuries. Intense tornado touched down just east of downtown Newberry, and moved to the east. Over 250 houses were destroyed. | |
| F4 | Winnsboro | Fairfield | 06:00 | 21 miles | 5 Deaths, 49 Injuries. F4 tornado moved east through Winnsboro before crossing I-77, parallel to the previous tornado along much of its' path; the circulation was up to 3/4 of a mile in width. | |
| F4 | Kershaw | Kershaw, Lancaster | 06:20 | 4 miles |
36 Injuries. Massive timber damage reported S of Kershaw. | |
| F2 | 9 miles north of McBee | Chesterfield | 06:40 | 2 miles |
Tornado touched down in the Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge, producing timber damage. | |
| F4 | Cash | Chesterfield | 06:45 | 7 miles |
24 Injuries. Tornado touched down 8 miles SW of Cheraw, and destroyed several homes in the community of Cash before dissipating along the Pee Dee River W of Bennettsville. | |
| F4 | Bennettsville SC (1st), Johns NC | Marlboro SC, Scotland NC | 07:10 | 17 miles |
7 Deaths, 100 Injuries. Tornado touched down very near the endpoint of the previous tornado, passing through N Bennettsville before dissipating near Laurinburg. Crossing the NC/SC line, it's area of circulation grew to a 1.75 mile width. | |
| F4 | Bennettsville SC (2nd), McColl SC, Maxton NC, Red Springs NC, Parkton NC | Marlboro SC, Scotland NC,
Robeson NC, Cumberland NC |
07:20 | 40 miles |
4 Deaths, 395 Injuries. Tornado touched down in SE Bennettsville, causing additional destruction in the town. Tornado was 2+ miles wide in places, and it parallelled the previous tornado at distances of less than 5 miles to the state line. Damage in McColl and Red Springs was extreme. | |
| F2 | west of Loris | Horry SC, Columbus NC | 09:35 | 16 miles |
8 Injuries. Tornado touched down NW of Conway, and was isolated from other tornado families in this outbreak. Tornado passed close to Loris, SC and Tabor City, NC. | |
| North Carolina | ||||||
| F1 | Fairview | Union | 06:10 | 0.5 mile | Brief touchdown in northern Union County, in the Fairview community (20 mi east of Charlotte). | |
| F3 | Roseboro, Salemburg | Bladen, Cumberland, Sampson | 07:45 | 40 miles |
12 Deaths, 101 Injuries in Roseboro, Salemburg and Clinton. | |
| F2 | Rocky Mount | Nash | 08:10 | 2 miles |
F2 damage on the SW edge of Rocky Mount. | |
| F4 | Mount Olive | Sampson, Duplin, Wayne | 08:15 | 21 miles |
3 Deaths, 149 Injuries. Strong F4 damage in the town of Mount Olive; parts of the Mount Olive College campus were affected. | |
| F3 | between LaGrange and Walnut Creek | Wayne, Lenoir | 08:30 | 9 miles |
81 Injuries. | |
| F4 | Winterville, Ayden, Greenville | Wayne, Lenoir, Greene, Pitt | 08:45 | 46 miles |
16 Deaths, 153 Injuries. Tornado was up to 1 mile wide. Fatalities in Greene County, Winterville, Ayden & Greenville, where SE suburbs and portions of the campus of East Carolina Univ experienced severe damage. | |
| F3 | Lewiston Woodville | Bertie | 08:55 | 6 miles |
6 Deaths, 19 Injuries. NW corner of Bertie County; tornado circulation was up to 1/2 mile wide. | |
| F2 | Ahoskie | Bertie, Hertford | 09:10 | 5 miles |
7 Injuries. F2 damage in Ahoskie. | |
| F1 | E of Cambridge | Hertford | 09:17 | 1 mile |
Damage near Harrellsville and the Wiccacon River. | |
| F3 | Gatesville | Gates | 09:37 | 14 miles |
2 Deaths, 10 Injuries. Several houses destroyed along mostly rural path. | |
| F2 | Edenton | Chowan, Perquimans | 10:15 | 6 miles |
1 Death, 1 Injury. Last tornado of the outbreak. | |
[edit] South Carolina
| State | Total | County | County total |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Carolina | 42 | Bertie | 6 |
| Cumberland | 2 | ||
| Gates | 2 | ||
| Greene | 7 | ||
| Perquimans | 1 | ||
| Pitt | 9 | ||
| Robeson | 2 | ||
| Sampson | 10 | ||
| Wayne | 3 | ||
| South Carolina | 15 | Fairfield | 5 |
| Marlboro | 9 | ||
| Newberry | 1 | ||
| Totals | 57 | ||
| All deaths were tornado-related | |||
The first tornado report in South Carolina was in Abbeville County, at 3:30 P.M. This became the first in what evolved into a strengthening family of tornadoes that left damage along a path over 300 miles long in two states. Ten minutes later, a tornado was confirmed in neighboring Laurens County. Within an hour, significant (F2 and F3 - see Fujita scale) damage was reported from two tornadoes reported twenty minutes apart in the Newberry area. An even stronger tornado, rated F4, then moved from Newberry County into Fairfield County, striking the town of Winnsboro, before crossing (and closing) I-77. Shortly thereafter, F4 tornado damage was noted in Lancaster County, SC and Chesterfield County, SC. $14 million in damage was recorded in and around Newberry and Winnsboro, with severe, widepread damage seen in downtown Newberry and along the northern edge of Winnsboro. At the same time, the first tornado report from North Carolina was recorded - a weak F1 tornado that briefly touched down in Union County, North Carolina between Charlotte and Monroe.
[edit] Crossing Into North Carolina
At 5:45 P.M., another F4 tornado was reported in Chesterfield County, near the town of Cash, SC. This storm dissipated as it moved into Marlboro County, SC, and was followed by another F4, just to the southeast, and also in Marlboro County. This storm - a large, multiple-vortex tornado, struck the city of Bennettsville before crossing into Scotland County, North Carolina. Ten minutes later, yet another F4 tornado was reported in Marlboro County, passing through more of Bennettsville, where shopping centers and many neighborhoods were completely destroyed, before striking McColl, SC en route to the North Carolina state line. This multiple-vortex tornado also crossed part of Scotland County, and then Robeson County in North Carolina, striking Maxton, NC, and then Red Springs, NC, where every building inside the city limits was damaged or destroyed. Survey teams noted that this tornado left a damage path nearly 2 miles wide as it crossed the state line; at the time this tornado was thought to have possibly been F5 in strength.
[edit] Eastern North Carolina
11 additional tornadoes were subsequently reported in Eastern North Carolina, between 7:00 P.M. and 10:30 P.M. F3 damage was recorded at Salemburg, east of Fayetteville, and F4 damage was noted at Mount Olive, NC and in the Greenville, NC area. 3 deaths and 149 injuries occurred in Mount Olive, where the downtown and portions of the Mount Olive College campus sustained severe damage. Another 16 deaths and 153 injuries were caused by the Greenville tornado, which swept through the south and southeast sections of town (along with portions of the East Carolina University campus) after producing severe damage in Greene County, Winterville and Ayden. The outbreak ended just south of the Chesapeake, VA area with additional strong tornadoes striking Ahoskie and Gates County in North Carolina; straight-line wind damage continued along a path into Chesapeake.
[edit] The Ultimate Toll
Ultimately this outbreak was responsible for 57 deaths, 1248 injuries, and confirmed tornado damage in 2 counties in Georgia, 8 counties in South Carolina, and 17 counties in North Carolina, according to data from the National Weather Service and the National Climatic Data Center records and statistical data. Storms associated with this outbreak were also responsible (according to the same data) for numerous reports of large hail and wind damage in Appalachian southwest North Carolina, and numerous larger cities (Atlanta, GA, Greenville, SC, Charlotte, NC, Fayetteville, NC, Raleigh, NC, Suffolk, VA, Norfolk, VA) at the periphery of the outbreak.
[edit] References
- Fujita, T.T., and Stiegler, D. (1985). "Detailed analysis of the tornado outbreak in the Carolinas by using radar, satellite, and aerial survey data. Preprints", 14th Conference on Severe Local Storms, Indianapolis. American Meteorological Society, p. 271-274.
- Kraft, Scott, and Timothy Harper. (April 1, 1984). "Wreckage, victims tell tornado's tale on 450-mile route", Associated Press. Syracuse Herald-American, page 16, Syracuse, New York.
