National Weather Service Forecast Office - Charleston, South Carolina - April 8, 2006 Severe Weather Outbreak Event Summary

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Severe Weather Outbreak - April 8, 2006

SUMMARY:
A large outbreak of severe thunderstorms impacted much of southeast South Carolina, southeast Georgia and the adjacent Atlantic coastal waters on Saturday, April 8, 2006 as a potent storm system moved across the southeast states. Four confirmed tornadoes occurred along the central South Carolina coast during this event. The same storm system had produced a deadly outbreak of tornadoes in the Tennessee Valley on the previous day. Numerous instances of large hail and some damaging wind reports were reported to forecasters at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Charleston, SC during the afternoon; mainly between the hours of 1 PM and 5 PM.

Click here for a map of damage reports from the event. A summary of local storm reports can be found here.

The outbreak was largely driven by well defined thunderstorm outflow boundaries in a warm and moist air mass coinciding with strong wind fields well ahead of an approaching cold front. The initial boundary was associated with a weakened line of thunderstorms that had moved into parts of central Georgia and upstate South Carolina by dawn on the 8th of April. These storms had been severe in the predawn hours across parts of north Georgia, producing a few tornadoes. Click here for more details.

Shortly after noon on the 8th of April, this boundary separated an increasingly warm and unstable atmosphere across much of southeast Georgia and southeast South Carolina from a slightly cooler and cloud-filled region from north central Georgia to the South Carolina midlands.

Click here for a detailed satellite image of the pre-storm environment at 1240 PM EDT.

Thunderstorms began to fire along this boundary during the early afternoon and quickly became severe across Hampton, Allendale, and Colleton Counties in southern South Carolina between 1 PM and 2 PM EDT. Click here to see a radar image of these intensifying thunderstorms.

Thunderstorms continued to develop to the northeast along the boundary and produced large hail across Dorchester and Berkeley Counties between 2 PM and 3 PM EDT. These storms exhibited strong tilted updrafts and weak rotation, which helped to sustain both their strength and longevity. Click here to see an image of a large hail producing storm in Dorchester County around 230 PM EDT.

Shortly after 3 PM EDT, southeast Georgia started to see rapidly intensifying thunderstorms, which began to produce large hail in parts of Tattnall, Evans, and Bulloch Counties. Click here to view a radar image of these severe thunderstorms.

These thunderstorms continued to gain strength and went on to produce severe weather (mainly in the form of large hail) in parts of Bryan, Liberty, and Chatham Counties in southeast Georgia. The storms organized further and eventually moved into extreme southern South Carolina, producing even more occurrences of severe weather in both Jasper and Beaufort Counties. Click here to see an image of severe thunderstorms hammering Hilton Head Island.

Boundary interaction continued to play a huge role in thunderstorm development on this particular afternoon. Cool thunderstorm outflows rushing east from thunderstorms in Hampton County and south from other storms in Dorchester and Berkeley Counties; eventually collided with a strong sea breeze boundary extending from southern Colleton County northeastward bisecting all of Charleston County. A rapidly developing and mammoth severe thunderstorm traveled rapidly northeast along the sea breeze front in Charleston County between 345 PM and 500 PM EDT. Locations in far southern parts of Dorchester and Berkeley Counties also experienced large hail with this thunderstorm cluster. Shallow but intense wind shear along the sea breeze boundary was the impetus for development of 4 confirmed tornadoes with this particular thunderstorm cluster. Click here to see a radar image of this storm over southwest Charleston County.

A public information statement describing each of the tornadoes can be found here and a map showing the tornado locations can be found here.

Adams Run, SC F1 Tornado:
(Track)
(Photo) - Courtesy of Ron Chumney
(Photo) - Courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Charleston "Neck", SC F0 Tornado:
(Track)
(Photo) - Courtesy of Greg Moore
(Photo) - Courtesy of Erik Gehringer

Daniel Island, SC F0 Tornado:
(Track)

West Ashley, SC F0 Tornado:
(Track)

Click here to see a radar image of the storm producing large hail around Awendaw in Charleston County.

Just shortly after 500 PM EDT, the severe thunderstorm in Charleston County crossed the south Santee River and moved into southern Georgetown County. The other storms to the south that produced severe weather earlier had moved well offshore and the event came to close.

Warning Summary Table:
(click the county name for a copy of the warning)

County, State	Warning Type	Valid Time	Severe Weather Reported?	Warning Lead Time (min) *
Allendale, SC	SVR	117-145 pm	Yes	5
Hampton, SC	SVR	117-145 pm	Yes	15
Colleton, SC	SVR	144-215 pm	Yes	16
Dorchester, SC	SVR	213-245 pm	Yes	7
Berkeley, SC	SVR	225-330 pm	Yes	28
Dorchester, SC	SVR	304-345 pm	Yes	11
Colleton, SC	SVR	304-345 pm	Yes	39
Evans, GA	SVR	309-415 pm	Yes	25
Tattnall, GA	SVR	309-415 pm	Yes	16
Bulloch, GA	SVR	309-415 pm	Yes	1
Bryan, GA	SVR	341-430 pm	Yes	14
Colleton, SC	SVR	349-415 pm	Yes	11
Charleston, SC	SVR	342-445 pm	Yes	18
Liberty, GA	SVR	350-430 pm	No	--
Dorchester, SC	SVR	354-445 pm	Yes	18
Effingham, GA	SVR	408-515 pm	Yes	7
Chatham, GA	SVR	408-515 pm	Yes	12
Berkeley, SC	SVR	413-445 pm	Yes	7
Berkeley, SC	TOR	429-515 pm	Yes	--
Charleston, SC	TOR	429-515 pm	Yes	--
Jasper, SC	SVR	428-530 pm	Yes	13
Beaufort, SC	SVR	428-530 pm	Yes	39

SVR=Severe Thunderstorm Warning
TOR=Tornado Warning
* Warning Lead Time is calculated based on the time of the first severe weather report

Event Summary: Richard Thacker and Steven Taylor
Web Design: Robert Bright

National Weather Service
Charleston Weather Forecast Office
5777 South Aviation Avenue
Charleston, S.C. 29406-6162
(843) 744-0303
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Page last modified: January 10, 2006

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