The South Carolina coast saw extensive damages in the early hours of Friday morning as a tornado came through the areas of West Ashley and Johns Island at approximately 12:40 a.m. ET.
The National Weather Service issued a warning for the area before the tornado hit after seeing debris from the tornado on the radar.
“The tornado was especially dangerous because it spun up quickly when it did,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dan Pydynowski said. “That can make the situation even more dangerous as people go to bed for the night and are not aware of the tornado warning that may be issued.”
A local resident, John Bercik, woke up to heavy rain and heard a howling noise similar to that of a train.
“When the roar started I was terrified. It was a very intense moment,” Bercik said.
When Bercik left his bedroom door, the rest of the house had been destroyed. The roof was missing, walls blown in, and his floor had been spun and moved. He used an umbrella to keep the rain off as he searched the wreckage for his cell phone.
While Bercik’s house was dealt the most damage, local fire officials stated that 10 homes suffered heavy damage. Other officials reported trees had fallen onto roads, bringing down powerlines. AccuWeather reported at least 9,000 SCE&G and Berkeley Electric Cooperative customers didn’t have power as a result of the storm.
The National Weather Service sent a team to asses the damage Friday morning.
Tropical Storm Erika has devastated the tiny island of Dominica, triggering landslides that have left at least six people missing and hundreds of people without homes.
The Antiqua Weather Service says the storm dumped 9 inches of rain onto the mountainous island late Wednesday and then 6 more inches on Thursday.
About 80 percent of the island is without electricity. The country’s airport has been closed after flood waters covered cars and at least one small airplane.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) says that the storm is moving west with sustained winds of 50 m.p.h. and is expected to cover Puerto Rico Thursday. The storm continues to be what forecasters call “poorly organized” and is not expected to strengthen over the next two days.
Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla said that while the storm could cut off power and water service, the storm would also bring much needed rain to the parched nation.
“We’re happy given the dry conditions, but it does highlight the need to be on alert,” he told CBS.
Forecasters say it is still too early to know whether or not the storm will reach Florida with any kind of tropical storm or hurricane strength.
Meanwhile in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Ignacio strengthened into a hurricane. The storm is moving slowly westward, about 1,100 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii.
A new report from British officials gives an ominous warning: a solar storm that could damage the National Grid could arrive with no more than 12 hour’s warning.
The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) says the possibility of “severe space weather” could leave nations in the dark and disrupt communications and air traffic.
“Solar activity can produce x-rays, high-energy particles and coronal mass ejections of plasma. Where such activity is directed towards Earth there is the potential to cause wide-ranging impacts. These include power loss, aviation disruption, communication loss, and disturbance to (or loss of) satellite systems,” the study reads.
The study says the storm could be worse than the Carrington event of 1859 that is considered the strongest geomagnetic storm to strike the Earth. Electric equipment worldwide was damaged by the storm and in some places, telegraph lines caught fire from the storm.
“Most coronal mass ejections are not emitted in the direction of Earth,” the report says. “Those that are typically take one to three days to reach us, and we can predict the arrival time to within about six hours. Predictions are currently less accurate due to degradation in the satellite capability available to forecasters.
“Generally speaking, the faster the ejection, the greater the potential impacts. The Carrington event, for example, travelled to Earth in as little as 18 hours. It is therefore likely that our reasonable worst case scenario would only allow us 12 hours from observation to impact.”
A heat wave has been baking Europe over the last week setting record high temperatures from Spain to England.
Meteorologists across the continent were reporting temperatures well over 100 degrees fahrenheit including southern France where the daytime highs are expected to top 105 degrees through the rest of the week.
“We have a lot of heat-wave days ahead of us,” MeteoFrance forecaster Francois Gourand told the Associated Press.
Heat in France was causing problems for the power grid, as 120,000 homes in the town of Vannes were left without power on Wednesday.
An all time high temperature for the UK in July was recorded on the first day of the month as London’s Heathrow Airport reported a high of 98.6 degrees.
The heat wave is striking the country at the start of the Wimbledon tennis championships and officials say it’s officially the hottest players have had to compete in the tournament’s history since it began in 1877. The heat was so intense a ball boy collapsed from the heat and had to be taken out on a stretcher.
While the heat bothered some residents, others took it in stride.
“I’m loving it. I can’t complain,” university student Maggie Cloud told the AP. “We pay so much money to go abroad to holidays, and now we have the weather here. It’s cheaper.”
