Alert archive / South Carolina / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2026

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 608

August 21, 20265 counties in Georgia; 31 counties in North Carolina; 34 counties in South Carolina

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at Aug 21, 2026, 1:40 PM EDT for 5 counties in Georgia; 31 counties in North Carolina; 34 counties in South Carolina. It was in force for 7 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Aug 21, 2026, 1:40 PM EDT (17:40 UTC)
Expired: Aug 21, 2026, 8:53 PM EDT
In force: 7 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 1 in
Strongest gust expected: 55 kt

All 70 counties

Burke County, GA, Columbia County, GA, Lincoln County, GA, McDuffie County, GA, Richmond County, GA, Anson County, NC, Bladen County, NC, Brunswick County, NC, Cabarrus County, NC, Cleveland County, NC, Columbus County, NC, Craven County, NC, Cumberland County, NC, Duplin County, NC, Gaston County, NC, Harnett County, NC, Hoke County, NC, Johnston County, NC, Jones County, NC, Lee County, NC, Lenoir County, NC, Lincoln County, NC, Mecklenburg County, NC, Montgomery County, NC, Moore County, NC, New Hanover County, NC, Onslow County, NC, Pamlico County, NC, Pender County, NC, Richmond County, NC, Robeson County, NC, Sampson County, NC, Scotland County, NC, Stanly County, NC, Union County, NC, Wayne County, NC, Abbeville County, SC, Aiken County, SC, Bamberg County, SC, Barnwell County, SC, Calhoun County, SC, Cherokee County, SC, Chester County, SC, Chesterfield County, SC, Clarendon County, SC, Darlington County, SC, Dillon County, SC, Edgefield County, SC, Fairfield County, SC, Florence County, SC, Georgetown County, SC, Greenwood County, SC, Horry County, SC, Kershaw County, SC, Lancaster County, SC, Laurens County, SC, Lee County, SC, Lexington County, SC, Marion County, SC, Marlboro County, SC, McCormick County, SC, Newberry County, SC, Orangeburg County, SC, Richland County, SC, Saluda County, SC, Spartanburg County, SC, Sumter County, SC, Union County, SC, Williamsburg County, SC, York County, SC

The radar

The Columbia radar (KCAE), 120 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:39 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What SPC expected

The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.

Two or more tornadoes: 5%
One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes: 2%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 50%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 20%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 20%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 10%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 70%

Warnings issued inside it

60 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 21, 1:53 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Duplin, Jones, Lenoir, Onslow	52 min
Aug 21, 2:06 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Cumberland, Hoke	54 min
Aug 21, 2:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Bladen, Columbus, Pender	38 min
Aug 21, 2:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Aiken, Lexington	38 min
Aug 21, 2:11 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Darlington, Florence	49 min
Aug 21, 2:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Duplin, Lenoir	30 min
Aug 21, 2:28 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Edgefield, McCormick	47 min
Aug 21, 2:29 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Greenwood	46 min
Aug 21, 2:32 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Bladen, Robeson	58 min
Aug 21, 2:35 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Florence	55 min
Aug 21, 2:42 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Columbia, Lincoln, McDuffie	48 min
Aug 21, 2:44 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	York	27 min
Aug 21, 2:53 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Bladen	67 min
Aug 21, 2:57 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Cumberland, Sampson	49 min
Aug 21, 3:00 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Pender	60 min
Aug 21, 3:01 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Lexington, Newberry, Richland, Saluda	44 min
Aug 21, 3:05 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Aiken, Edgefield, Saluda	40 min
Aug 21, 3:06 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Chester, Union	39 min
Aug 21, 3:09 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Fairfield, Newberry, Richland	51 min
Aug 21, 3:11 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Bladen, Columbus, Robeson	64 min
Aug 21, 3:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Edgefield, Newberry, Saluda	45 min
Aug 21, 3:21 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Chester	54 min
Aug 21, 3:27 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Cumberland, Sampson	3 hr
Aug 21, 3:29 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Columbia, McDuffie, Richmond	46 min
Aug 21, 3:34 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Sampson	41 min
Aug 21, 3:44 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	CAE	Fairfield, Lexington, Newberry, Richland, Saluda	46 min
Aug 21, 3:46 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Mecklenburg, Union	44 min
Aug 21, 3:48 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Lancaster	42 min
Aug 21, 3:52 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Chester	38 min
Aug 21, 3:54 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Fairfield, Newberry, Richland	66 min
Aug 21, 4:04 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Union	56 min
Aug 21, 4:10 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	ILM	Columbus	5 hr
Aug 21, 4:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Chesterfield	44 min
Aug 21, 4:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Fairfield, Kershaw, Lancaster	44 min
Aug 21, 4:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Brunswick, Columbus	38 min
Aug 21, 4:31 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Anson, Richmond, Scotland	59 min
Aug 21, 4:33 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	ILM	New Hanover	4 hr
Aug 21, 4:35 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILM	New Hanover, Pender	25 min
Aug 21, 4:41 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Union	49 min
Aug 21, 4:41 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Anson, Davidson, Montgomery, Moore, Randolph, Stanly	64 min
Aug 21, 4:42 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Marlboro	78 min
Aug 21, 4:57 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Chesterfield, Lancaster	48 min
Aug 21, 5:04 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Calhoun, Richland, Sumter	41 min
Aug 21, 5:06 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Burke, Richmond	39 min
Aug 21, 5:23 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Anson, Hoke, Lee, Montgomery, Moore, Richmond and 2 more	67 min
Aug 21, 5:27 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Anson, Richmond, Stanly	3 hr
Aug 21, 5:28 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Georgetown, Williamsburg	47 min
Aug 21, 5:33 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning Considerable damage threat	RAH	Montgomery, Moore, Richmond, Stanly	3 hr
Aug 21, 5:44 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Burke	46 min
Aug 21, 6:01 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Bamberg, Barnwell	59 min
Aug 21, 6:03 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	RAH	Chatham, Montgomery, Moore, Randolph	27 min
Aug 21, 6:06 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Calhoun, Clarendon, Richland, Sumter	54 min
Aug 21, 6:12 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Calhoun, Clarendon, Orangeburg	63 min
Aug 21, 6:13 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Florence, Williamsburg	62 min
Aug 21, 6:22 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Hoke, Richmond, Scotland	38 min
Aug 21, 6:24 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Clarendon, Lee, Sumter	66 min
Aug 21, 6:28 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	RAH	Chatham, Harnett, Lee, Moore	47 min
Aug 21, 7:13 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	CAE	Clarendon, Orangeburg	3 hr
Aug 21, 7:47 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Greenville, Spartanburg	43 min
Aug 21, 8:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Greenville, Laurens, Spartanburg	68 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), launched 12:00Z, 5.7 hours before the alert went out and 158 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 324 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -132 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 916 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 45 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 127 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.1
Supercell composite: 2.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 21, 2:10 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Baker, Baldwin, Ben Hill and 77 more	2 hr
Aug 21, 3:08 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Columbia, Lincoln, McDuffie, Richmond	2 hr
Aug 21, 6:16 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Appling, Bacon, Bryan, Bulloch, Candler, Effingham and 7 more	119 min
Aug 21, 10:13 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anson, Bladen, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin and 17 more	3 hr

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in South Carolina, 2026 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in North Carolina, 2026 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Georgia, 2026 Every severe thunderstorm watch in 2026

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.