NWS confirms second tornado in Beaufort County during Debby. Here’s where, when it hit

Tropical Storm Debby spawned a “weak, very short-lived” tornado on Saint Helena Island on Aug. 6, according to a National Weather Service report on Thursday afternoon. It is the second confirmed tornado in Beaufort County that happened during the storm system’s multi-day wake.

Associated with Debby’s outer rain bands, the EF-0 twister touched down at 12:41 a.m. over the marsh region of the Harbor River, south of 1st Coleman Road, and traveled 0.83 miles, the service said. Peak winds reached 74 mph. Rapidly moving northwest, along the southern and western side of the road, the tornado snapped “several” tree limbs and small trees, broke a flag pole at its base and slightly damaged the metal skirt at the base of a mobile home, the report noted.

The twister, which lasted a total of 2 minutes, then spun briefly to the northwest where it dissipated in a wooded area southwest of the Seaside Road and 1st Coleman Road intersection. As of Thursday afternoon, the Saint Helena Island Debby-related tornado is the eighth and most recently confirmed by the NWS.

Other seven tornado locations:

• Isle of Palms, EF-0

• Lady’s Island, EF-0

• Edisto Beach, EF-1
• Edisto South, EF-1
• West Ashley, EF-0
• Moncks Corner, EF-1

• Kiawah, EF-0

The first-confirmed tornado in Beaufort County was identified on Lady’s Island and reported by the service’s Charleston Office on Aug. 7.

It developed at 12:53 a.m. Aug. 6 over Point Creek, southeast of Lady’s Island, and “moved rapidly northwest” through the marsh toward a residential area, according to previous reporting by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette . The EF-0 twister snapped several trees along Holly Hall Road and near the 500 block of Sams Point Road before quickly dissipating south of Wade Hampton Drive around 12:56 a.m., according to the report.

Meteorologists predicted the twister lasted 3 minutes, traveled over 2 miles and generated peak wind speeds of 85 mph.

Hurricanes and tropical storms can lead to the formation of tornadoes, because as the outer bands of a storm reach land, winds are slowed closer to the ground but remain strong at higher altitudes. The difference causes wind shear, which is a variation in wind speed and direction at different heights, and creates the spin required for tornado formation.

After Debby made landfall 7 a.m. Aug. 5 as Category 1 hurricane in Florida’s Big Bend region, the system slowly moved up the Southeast coast, showering Beaufort County with torrential rain and wiping out power.

Five-day rainfall county counts from the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network, a national nonprofit that collects local rainfall data and submits it to the NWS, showed figures as low as 6.76 inches on Hilton Head Island and up to 15.12 inches in Beaufort.