Alert archive / South Carolina

Weather alerts in Lancaster County, South Carolina

2,387 weather alerts since 1986, from the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center. An alert counts here when it covered this county.

Lancaster County and its neighbors

Each county as a circle sized by its count since 1986. Tap one for its archive.

Alerts
2,387
Warnings
603
Watches
309
Advisories
464
Busiest year
2020172 alerts
Average year
61over 39 years on file

Over time

By year

Before late 2005 the archive holds only tornado, severe thunderstorm, flash flood and marine warnings, and from 1997 SPC's watches, so the jump that year is the archive widening, not the weather.

By month of the year

Warning verification

How often warnings here had a storm report inside them, and how much warning the reports had.

From 2008 to 2025, 100% of tornado reports in Lancaster County fell inside a tornado warning issued on average 7 minutes before, and 74% of the tornado warnings had no report inside them.

Tornado warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20087186%1100%4 min
2010220%2100%1 min
201130100%0
201620100%0
2017110%1100%25 min
201810100%0
201910100%0
2020110%1100%6 min
202510100%0
Share of tornado reports inside a tornado warning, by year.

Severe thunderstorm warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
200811555%650%21 min
200914936%6100%30 min
2010151220%8100%25 min
2011413320%3197%39 min
2012241825%1486%17 min
201310910%4100%43 min
2014171324%11100%19 min
2015171135%1258%18 min
2016262312%1392%22 min
2017131115%7100%22 min
2018161319%1292%25 min
2019201335%2429%18 min
2020271641%2896%27 min
202110550%838%18 min
2022272411%2896%24 min
2023770%1275%20 min
2024282414%3197%30 min
2025121017%580%28 min

Flash flood warnings by year

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
20084175%367%38 min
200910100%0
2010110%2100%7 min
2012330%1580%70 min
2013110%1100%34 min
20143233%3100%58 min
2015220%650%152 min
2016110%3100%93 min
2018220%12100%220 min
2019010%
2020220%333%29 min
20246517%888%159 min
2025110%3100%63 min

Years from 2008, the first full year of storm-based warnings. The year still running is on its own page.

Verified by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's Cow, which matches each storm-based warning with the local storm reports inside its polygon while it was in force, within 15 km of its edge: a tornado warning counts as verified on a tornado report, a severe thunderstorm warning on hail of 1 inch or more, a gust of 58 mph or more, or wind damage, a flash flood warning on a flash flood report. The false alarm ratio is the share of warnings with no such report; "inside a warning" is the probability of detection, the share of reports that fell inside one; lead time runs from the warning's issue to each report inside it, counting zero for a report that came first. A warning with no report is not proof nothing happened: reports come from spotters, the public and damage surveys, and are thin where few people live.

By product

Every kind of product issued here, grouped by hazard. Each opens the same place narrowed to that product.

The latest warnings

The most recent on file, newest first.

IssuedProductOfficeLasted
Sep 11, 5:08 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAE52 min
Sep 5, 4:14 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAE46 min
Aug 27, 9:19 PM EDTFlash Flood WarningCAE3 hr
Aug 21, 4:57 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAE48 min
Aug 21, 4:16 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAE44 min
Aug 21, 3:48 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAE42 min
Aug 11, 7:17 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAE28 min
Aug 6, 4:40 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAE35 min
Jul 24, 1:29 AM EDTFlash Flood WarningCAE3 hr
Jul 12, 3:17 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAE26 min
Jul 12, 2:38 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAE67 min
Jul 10, 5:19 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningCAE64 min

Nearby

Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordForecastThe radar archive

Sources

National Weather Service watches, warnings, advisories and statements from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's VTEC archive, which reconstructs tornado, severe thunderstorm, flash flood and marine warnings back to 1986 from the NWS text archive. Storm Prediction Center watches and mesoscale discussions from SPC's archive through the Mesonet. County centers from the US Census Bureau. Warning verification from the Mesonet's Cow. Rebuilt daily.