South Carolina has wild weather year in 2020 with most tornadoes reported in 16 years

2020 will be a memorable year for a lot of reasons, and South Carolina can add wild weather to the list.

For starters, the Palmetto State saw the second-most tornadoes on record, with 62 touching down statewide, according to a new report from the state Department of Natural Resources.

The year past kicked off with eight twisters in January, followed by another two the next month. Things were quiet until April, when a total of 30 tornadoes wreaked havoc across the state, with seven reaching EF3 category, which have winds between 136-165 mph, and one EF4 spinning at 166-200 mph, according to the report.

The April tornadoes cost the lives of nine people, bringing destruction to the communities in their path, McClatchy News previously reported.

The most powerful twisters all touched down in April, while tornadoes reported in other months ranged in intensity from EF0 to EF2.

As tornadic as 2020 was, it still came in 24 twisters shy of the record high set in 2004, in which 86 tornadoes swept across South Carolina, according to the SCDNR.

It was an especially wet year, as well.

With nearly 60 inches of precipitation in the state, it was the sixth wettest year since record-keeping began in 1895, the report said.

That extra rain caused flooding in parts of the Santee and Pee Dee river basins in February and May.

Besides being wet and windy, the year was warm, according to the report, the fifth warmest it has ever been.

The average temperature across the state was 64.7 degrees Fahrenheit, 2.3 degrees higher than normal. Charleston residents felt the heat more than most, the temperature in the city was roughly 3 degrees above the statewide average.

“The driving force behind the warmer than average year was due to the record breaking high minimum temperatures,” the report said.

The average minimum temperature was 54.3 degrees, the highest ever recorded in South Carolina.