Story Published:
Apr 11, 2009 at 11:21 PM EST
Story Updated:
Apr 11, 2009 at 11:21 PM EST
AUGUSTA, Ga. - Preliminary reports from the National Weather Service indicate three storms produced tornadoes in various parts of the Central Savannah River Area Friday night and early Saturday morning.
Steve Naglic and Leonard Vaughan of the National Weather Service in Columbia, S.C. surveyed the damage Saturday.
Naglic tells NBC Augusta 26 News that the strongest tornado occurred in the Petticoat Junction area of Aiken County along the intersection of highways 302 and 278. The storm that produced that EF-3 tornado also produced an EF-2 tornado in the Barton Chapel Road area of south Augusta and an EF-1 tornado in Grovetown, Ga., with winds estimated at 105 mph. The storm moved out of McDuffie County into Columbia and Richmond counties before entering Aiken County.
Other storms affected Burke County in Georgia and Allendale and Barnwell counties in South Carolina. Naglic reports an EF-0 tornado near Keysville, Ga. A strong tornado caused damage just north-northwest of Waynesboro, Ga., with winds estimated in the 150-160 mph range. That qualifies as an EF-3. The storms went on to produce another EF-3 tornado at Hancock Landing, Ga., along the Savannah River and crossed into South Carolina. The Charleston National Weather Service Office reports those storms caused an EF-1 tornado just northwest of the town of Martin, S.C., and another EF-2 tornado to the northeast of Martin.
As of Saturday evening, Naglic and his team were still in the process of reporting their findings. NBC Augusta will update this story if any information changes or new information about these tornadoes is made available.
The EF tornado rankings are based on a scale of 0 to 5, with 0 being the weakest and 5 being the strongest. Tornadoes ranking EF-3 and stronger are rare in Georgia-Carolina.
This severe weather event was not quite as bad as the tornado outbreak of March 15, 2008, when five supercell thunderstorms produced tornadoes in the CSRA.
NBC Augusta's free WeatherCall service provided warnings to subscribers all across the CSRA during the event. More than 14,000 phone calls were issued to subscribers within one minute or less after the National Weather Service issued 16 Severe Thunderstorm Warnings and 11 Tornado Warnings.
Although the severe weather knocked NBC Augusta off the air for many cable subscribers, WeatherCall continued to warn viewers who had already signed up for the service. If you would like to sign up for the free service, and you live in the NBC Augusta viewing area, click here.
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