Ruffin, SC Natural Disasters and Weather Extremes
Hot Rankings
The chance of earthquake damage in Ruffin is lower than South Carolina average and is much lower than the national average. The risk of tornado damage in Ruffin is lower than South Carolina average and is lower than the national average.
Earthquake Index, #228
| Ruffin, SC | 0.17 |
| South Carolina | 0.49 |
| U.S. | 1.81 |
The earthquake index value is calculated based on historical earthquake events data using USA.com algorithms. It is an indicator of the earthquake level in a region. A higher earthquake index value means a higher chance of an earthquake.
Volcano Index, #1
| Ruffin, SC | 0.0000 |
| South Carolina | 0.0000 |
| U.S. | 0.0023 |
The volcano index value is calculated based on the currently known volcanoes using USA.com algorithms. It is an indicator of the possibility of a region being affected by a possible volcano eruption. A higher volcano index value means a higher chance of being affected.
Tornado Index, #395
| Ruffin, SC | 107.29 |
| South Carolina | 136.91 |
| U.S. | 136.45 |
The tornado index value is calculated based on historical tornado events data using USA.com algorithms. It is an indicator of the tornado level in a region. A higher tornado index value means a higher chance of tornado events.
Other Weather Extremes Events
A total of 3,392 other weather extremes events within 50 miles of Ruffin, SC were recorded from 1950 to 2010. The following is a break down of these events:
| Type | Count | Type | Count | Type | Count | Type | Count | Type | Count |
| Avalanche: | 0 | Blizzard: | 0 | Cold: | 3 | Dense Fog: | 0 | Drought: | 21 |
| Dust Storm: | 0 | Flood: | 219 | Hail: | 916 | Heat: | 14 | Heavy Snow: | 7 |
| High Surf: | 6 | Hurricane: | 3 | Ice Storm: | 7 | Landslide: | 0 | Strong Wind: | 26 |
| Thunderstorm Winds: | 2,001 | Tropical Storm: | 14 | Wildfire: | 1 | Winter Storm: | 4 | Winter Weather: | 0 |
| Other: | 150 | ||||||||
Volcanos Nearby
No volcano is found in or near Ruffin, SC.
Historical Earthquake Events
A total of 3 historical earthquake events that had recorded magnitudes of 3.5 or above found in or near Ruffin, SC.
| Distance (miles) | Date | Magnitude | Depth (km) | Latitude | Longitude |
| 38.9 | 1974-11-22 | 4.7 | 18 | 32.9 | -80.15 |
| 44.0 | 1972-02-03 | 4.5 | 5 | 33.5 | -80.4 |
| 30.7 | 1967-10-23 | 3.8 | N/A | 33.4 | -80.7 |
Historical Tornado Events
A total of 28 historical tornado events that had recorded magnitude of 2 or above found in or near Ruffin, SC.
| Distance (miles) | Date | Magnitude | Start Lat/Log | End Lat/Log | Length | Width | Fatalities | Injuries | Property Damage | Crop Damage | Affected County |
| 18.7 | 2008-03-15 | 3 | 33°14'N / 80°51'W | 33°14'N / 80°41'W | 10.00 Miles | 1320 Yards | 0 | 0 | 0K | 0K | Orangeburg |
| Brief Description: EVENT NARRATIVE: Extensive damage in Branchville. One home was destroyed and 16 had other moderate to major damage. One mobile home was destroyed and a half dozen had moderate to major damage. Seven buildings in downtown were destroyed, including a couple of 3 layer deep brick buildings. Thirteen others had major damage and 5 had minor damage. Amazingly there were no injuries or deaths. EPISODE NARRATIVE: Seven supercells tracked across our South Carolina County Warning Area and produced many long-lived tornadoes that did significant damage. Over 85 homes were destroyed, around 400 had moderate damage, and estimates for the total devastation were around 40 million dollars. | |||||||||||
| 24.5 | 1999-04-15 | 2 | 33°07'N / 81°13'W | 33°07'N / 81°11'W | 3.00 Miles | 150 Yards | 0 | 0 | 2K | 20K | Allendale |
| Brief Description: An F2 tornado destroyed 20 acres of watermelons and rolled over a large tractor several times. Numerous trees and powerlines were down along the track. | |||||||||||
| 25.3 | 1983-04-23 | 3 | 33°19'N / 80°56'W | 33°20'N / 80°52'W | 4.00 Miles | 200 Yards | 0 | 0 | 2.5M | 0 | Orangeburg |
| 26.0 | 1983-04-23 | 3 | 33°14'N / 81°13'W | 33°19'N / 80°56'W | 16.00 Miles | 200 Yards | 0 | 4 | 2.5M | 0 | Bamberg |
| 34.0 | 1983-04-23 | 3 | 33°10'N / 81°27'W | 33°14'N / 81°13'W | 13.00 Miles | 200 Yards | 0 | 2 | 2.5M | 0 | Barnwell |
| 35.9 | 2009-04-10 | 2 | 33°06'N / 81°25'W | 6.00 Miles | 500 Yards | 0 | 0 | 1.0M | 0K | Allendale | |
| Brief Description: EVENT NARRATIVE: A National Weather Service Survey Team determined a tornado touched down along Roberts Road 3.5 miles northeast of Martin, South Carolina at 1230 AM local time Saturday morning and traveled 5.6 miles before lifting. Initially the tornado uprooted or snapped numerous trees with one tree falling on a mobile home and damaging the roof of the structure. The under-skirting of the mobile home was peeled back by the winds and a couple windows were blown out. Additionally, several cars sustained damage by falling trees outside of the mobile home. Another couple homes along Roberts Road received minor rood damage and a couple carports were slightly damaged as well. The tornado continued to nearly parallel Miller Creek Road downing numerous trees and power lines. The maximum width of the tornado was approximately 500 yards near the intersection of Camp Jackson Road and Miller Creek Road. The tornado lifted 2.3 miles south southeast of Kline, South Carolina just past the intersection of Appleton Road and Barnwell Highway /US Highway 278/ at 1239 AM local time, but not before damaging the roof and cinder-block walls of a home, downing numerous trees and completely destroying the historic Cave Methodist Church. The church was wiped completely off its foundation. Several grave stones surrounding the church were overturned or knocked down. An 18 wheel truck was overturned a couple hundred feet from the Cave Methodist Church with a tree falling on it and causing further damage. In total, 4 homes, 1 mobile home, 1 church and 5 vehicles received damage as a result of the tornado. In addition, hundreds of acres of timber was damaged or destroyed. The tornado did not result in any injuries or fatalities. The National Weather Service Damage Survey Team determined the strength of the tornado to be an EF2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale with winds estimated between 120 and 130 miles per hour. EPISODE NARRATIVE: An area of low pressure and associated cold front pushed through the southeast where kinematic profiles and anomalously cold air aloft existed. This lead to the development of strong storms over Allendale county overnight on April 10, 2009. | |||||||||||
| 37.1 | 2000-09-22 | 2 | 33°05'N / 81°29'W | 33°05'N / 81°24'W | 4.50 Miles | 750 Yards | 1 | 5 | 290K | 0 | Allendale |
| Brief Description: Fatality occurred in a camper that was one of 10 other campers at a hunt club. The camper was the second one in the line and it appeared to have disintegrated. One of the other campers was turned on its side while the others remained upright, for the most part. Also, there were three mobile homes destroyed, major damage to two mobile homes, minor damage to six mobile homes and major damage to a frame home along with numerous trees down or snapped 10 to 15 feet above the ground. This tornado continued into Barnwell County in WFO Columbia's CWA. M68VE The two tornadoes that occurred in Allendale County were associated with the remnants of T.S. Helene as it moved across Georgia and South Carolina. Heavy rain developed across Berkeley County during the early morning hours of 9/22/00 and caused flooding over the northern half of the county, especially in and around Moncks Corner. The 42 year-old female was killed when she hit a puddle of water and hydroplaned. She hit a pine tree head on and was killed on impact. | |||||||||||
| 38.5 | 1998-03-08 | 2 | 33°23'N / 80°27'W | 33°27'N / 80°24'W | 5.00 Miles | 100 Yards | 0 | 0 | 220K | 0 | Orangeburg |
| Brief Description: An F2 tornado did major damage to a horse farm and race track. Several of the horses were injured. Debris from the horse farm was found as far as 3 miles away. Major damage was also done to a home and a couple of mobile homes. Minor damage was also done to a couple of mobile and permanent homes. | |||||||||||
| 38.6 | 1976-05-15 | 2 | 33°28'N / 81°02'W | 33°31'N / 81°03'W | 3.80 Miles | 40 Yards | 0 | 3 | 250K | 0 | Orangeburg |
| 39.8 | 1975-05-03 | 2 | 32°29'N / 81°16'W | 32°32'N / 81°12'W | 5.40 Miles | 50 Yards | 0 | 2 | 250K | 0 | Effingham |
| 41.9 | 1998-03-08 | 2 | 33°32'N / 81°05'W | 33°32'N / 81°04'W | 1.30 Miles | 75 Yards | 0 | 0 | 80K | 0 | Orangeburg |
| Brief Description: An F2 tornado tracked along highway 4 near Pine Hill. It picked up 2 mobile homes, took them 35 ft into the air, and brought them down on top of a 35 ft by 75 ft cinder block building 30 yards away completely destroying the mobile homes and the building. Other damage was done to a couple other mobile and permanent homes, and also to a church roof. A second 12 ft by 24 ft cinder block building was also demolished. | |||||||||||
| 42.6 | 2004-12-10 | 3 | 33°34'N / 80°50'W | 33°36'N / 80°49'W | 1.50 Miles | 80 Yards | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Orangeburg |
| Brief Description: Damage survey found an F3 tornado demolished a brick church, completely destroyed 2 mobile homes and several outbuildings. The main damage occurred on Coulter road. | |||||||||||
| 42.7 | 1990-10-22 | 2 | 33°35'N / 80°47'W | 0.10 Mile | 20 Yards | 1 | 4 | 250K | 0 | Calhoun | |
| 43.0 | 1998-05-10 | 2 | 33°01'N / 80°07'W | 32°59'N / 80°02'W | 10.00 Miles | 666 Yards | 1 | 7 | 5.0M | 0 | Berkeley |
| Brief Description: After two brief earler touchdowns in Dorchester County, the supercell crossed Interstate 26 into Berkeley County where the most extensive damage occurred. There were 442 homes damaged (17 destroyed, 113 major damage, and the remainder had minor damage. Areas hardest hit were Frankie Lane and Royale Road, where numerous mobile homes were located. There was a 90 year old female who was injured severely when her mobile home was flipped and throuwn more than 40 feet. She died several hours later. Several eye witnesses reported seeing vortices rotating around the main funnel. This fact was born out by the damage pattern in several areas. F90MH | |||||||||||
| 43.2 | 1975-02-18 | 2 | 33°22'N / 81°25'W | 33°22'N / 81°22'W | 3.30 Miles | 67 Yards | 0 | 5 | 250K | 0 | Barnwell |
| 44.8 | 1958-04-22 | 2 | 33°35'N / 80°39'W | 33°36'N / 80°34'W | 5.10 Miles | 100 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Calhoun |
| 45.0 | 1998-09-03 | 2 | 32°21'N / 80°26'W | 32°26'N / 80°28'W | 15.00 Miles | 75 Yards | 1 | 4 | 360K | 0 | Beaufort |
| Brief Description: Thirteen homes were destroyed and another thirteen were heavily damaged, most of them were mobile homes. One mobile home was flipped in the air and smashed to the ground where a 66 -year old female was crushed to death. Numerous trees were snapped off 5 to 15 feet above the ground with others uprooted. The worse of the damage was concentrated in an area approximately 2.5 to 3 miles long across Fripp Island to near Morgan Island. The tornado then crossed the St Helena Sound and moved into Colleton County. F66MH | |||||||||||
| 45.3 | 1978-07-25 | 2 | 33°34'N / 81°08'W | 0.10 Mile | 10 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Orangeburg | |
| 45.7 | 1963-09-28 | 2 | 33°30'N / 81°17'W | 0.50 Mile | 100 Yards | 0 | 1 | 25K | 0 | Orangeburg | |
| 45.8 | 1989-10-01 | 2 | 33°09'N / 81°42'W | 33°15'N / 81°25'W | 16.50 Miles | 200 Yards | 0 | 0 | 2.5M | 0 | Barnwell |
| 46.2 | 2008-05-11 | 2 | 32°41'N / 80°12'W | 32°40'N / 80°00'W | 12.00 Miles | 1760 Yards | 0 | 0 | 1.2M | 0K | Charleston |
| Brief Description: EVENT NARRATIVE: A confirmed EF-2 Tornado initially touched down along Bears Bluff Road on Wadmalaw Island, where minor damage was observed. The damage at the initial touchdown location was confined to several trees getting sheared off near the base or twisted to the ground. The Tornado then traveled east and crossed the Maybank Highway on Wadmalaw Island where major damage was observed. The majority of the damage occurred on the 4800 block of Maybank Highway, where nearly all the trees in the path of the Tornado were twisted to the ground or sheared off near the base. Numerous homes were damaged as the Tornado ripped through, with many sustaining roof and shingle damage. In fact, two homes had a section of there roofs detached and hurled approximately 50 to 100 feet away from the residences. A detached garage also sustained damage, when the suction from the Tornado caused the garage door to get buckled inward into the garage itself, and portions of the tin roof was ripped away and displaced 50 to 75 feet from the garage. A cinder block wall on another home sustained severe damage when a large section of cinder blocks was torn from the wall and hurled into the home. Additionally, a chain link fence around the residence was ripped off and displaced 20 to 30 feet from the supporting poles which held the fence in place. Another home sustained severe damage, as the front porch of the residence was detached and tossed 100 to 150 feet. The same home had the roof lifted 2 to 3 inches from the supporting walls, and a large window curtain was actually pulled upward and into the attic as the Tornado moved through. Quite a bit of damage was also observed in the Long Creek Plantation subdivision, where significant tree damage was observed along with several homes sustaining some minor roof damage. The Tornado then moved onto Johns Island and crossed Bohicket Road. Moderate damage was observed as it moved through this area of Johns Island. The majority of the damage was confined to trees being sheared off near the base or twisted to the ground. Several homes did sustain some minor roof damage as shingles were lifted and displaced from the residences. Minor damage was observed on River Road when the Tornado weakened before lifting just south of the Charleston Executive Airport. The damage along River Road was confined primarily to several downed trees. A tin roof of a shed sustained minor damage as well, as it lifted slightly but remained intact. The Maximum sustained winds were estimated to be 120 mph with this Tornado. The total path length was 12 miles, with a path width of 1 mile when it crossed Maybank Highway and six tenths of a mile when it crossed Bohicket Road. Although significant damage occurred, no injuries were reported. EPISODE NARRATIVE: A warm front lifted northward through southern South Carolina and southeast Georgia during the morning, with a strong cold front then sweeping through the area during the evening. This resulted in several rounds of severe weather across the region. | |||||||||||
| 46.8 | 2003-07-01 | 2 | 32°41'N / 81°36'W | 32°45'N / 81°32'W | 6.00 Miles | 500 Yards | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Screven |
| Brief Description: A tornado knocked down numerous trees and power lines and overturned a car. Much of WFO Charleston's CWA was impacted by the remnants of Tropical Storm Bill as it tracked to the northeast across the extreme northern section of Georgia. The mini outbreak of tornadoes started around 8 p.m. on the night of July 1st and did not stop until after 115 a.m. on the morning of July 2nd. Fortunately, there were no deaths with the tornadoes. Screven County was hardest hit with three separate tornadoes and three areas of wind damage. | |||||||||||
| 47.3 | 2004-12-10 | 2 | 33°39'N / 80°47'W | 33°39'N / 80°47'W | 0.50 Mile | 60 Yards | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Calhoun |
| Brief Description: Damage survey found an F2 tornado tore most of the concrete roof off a warehouse and damaged several vehicles and other outbuildings. | |||||||||||
| 47.5 | 1989-05-01 | 2 | 33°24'N / 81°26'W | 33°30'N / 81°22'W | 4.00 Miles | 50 Yards | 0 | 12 | 2.5M | 0 | Barnwell |
| 47.9 | 2008-03-15 | 2 | 32°23'N / 81°18'W | 32°22'N / 81°12'W | 7.00 Miles | 440 Yards | 0 | 5 | 1.5M | 0K | Effingham |
| Brief Description: EVENT NARRATIVE: An EF2 Tornado was confirmed by a Storm Survey conducted by the Charleston, South Carolina National Weather Service Forecast Office. The Tornado touched down in Effingham county 1 mile northeast of Springfield, Georgia at 934 PM EDT and traveled southeast approximately 7 miles before lifting at 943 PM EDT about 6 miles east-southeast of Springfield, Georgia. This Tornado destroyed three mobile homes, damaged three to four dozen homes, knocked down 15 high voltage transmission towers, destroyed or damaged 20 vehicles, destroyed numerous outbuildings, sheds, and barns. Five people were injured when the mobile home they were in was blown over and rolled a time or two. Another person was injured when they drove a car into a tree that had fallen across the road. This tornado was a quarter mile wide at its widest point when it crossed Ebenezer Road and had maximum sustained winds estimated between 110 and 120 mph. EPISODE NARRATIVE: A large and intense area of low pressure lifted northward through the central Appalachians, dragging a strong cold front toward southern South Carolina and southeast Georgia. The combination of the approaching cold front along with strong dynamic forcing and plenty of instability resulted in a widespread organized severe weather outbreak across the region. | |||||||||||
| 48.5 | 1998-09-03 | 2 | 32°45'N / 81°39'W | 32°49'N / 81°36'W | 8.00 Miles | 350 Yards | 0 | 7 | 435K | 0 | Screven |
| Brief Description: Numerous trees snapped off or uprooted. The most extensive damage was approximately 3 miles north of Sylvania. In this area, there were 5 mobile homes destroyed, 1 business destroyed, 15 mobile homes with major damage and 5 mobile homes with minor damage. | |||||||||||
| 48.9 | 1958-04-22 | 2 | 33°36'N / 80°34'W | 33°37'N / 80°21'W | 12.60 Miles | 100 Yards | 1 | 1 | 25K | 0 | Clarendon |
| 49.7 | 1967-07-07 | 2 | 32°45'N / 81°38'W | 0.50 Mile | 33 Yards | 0 | 0 | 25K | 0 | Screven | |
* The information on this page is based on the global volcano database, the U.S. earthquake database of 1638-1985, and the U.S. Tornado and Weather Extremes database of 1950-2010.