Alert archive / South Carolina / Tornado Warnings

Tornado Warnings in South Carolina, 2014

8 tornado warnings in 2014. An alert counts here when it covered any part of the state, so the counties below add up to more than the state. The archive of tornado warnings reaches back to 1986.

Tornado Warnings by county

Each county as a circle sized by its count in 2014. Tap one for its archive.

Tornado Warnings
8
Busiest month
October3 tornado warnings
Busiest day
October 14, 20143 tornado warnings

Over time

By month

Warning verification

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

3 of 8 tornado warnings covering South Carolina in 2014 had a tornado report inside them; 3 of 8 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 9 minutes after it went out.

South Carolina, 2014

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
Tornado warnings8363%838%9 min

Each office's whole area, 2014

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
NWS Columbia, SC: tornado warnings220%367%4 min
NWS Charleston, SC: tornado warnings30100%20%
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC: tornado warnings15287%450%9 min
NWS Wilmington, NC: tornado warnings70100%20%

An office's figures cover every county it serves, including across state lines.

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.

The alerts

Every alert, in the order issued. Times are local, Eastern Time. Each opens its own page with the text, the map, the radar and the sounding.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
Jan 11, 9:43 AM ESTTornado WarningGSPAbbeville, Anderson, Greenville, Laurens47 min
Feb 21, 5:59 AM ESTTornado WarningGSPOconee, Pickens31 min
May 15, 7:46 PM EDTTornado WarningILMHorry29 min
Jun 6, 8:38 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEBamberg37 min
Jun 9, 10:17 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEOrangeburg19 min
Oct 14, 7:53 AM EDTTornado WarningGSPOconee52 min
Oct 14, 8:41 AM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenville, Oconee, Pickens49 min
Oct 14, 12:38 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPCherokee, Spartanburg52 min

By county

Every county with at least one alert. A county page lists each alert that covered it.

The busiest days

Days with the most alerts issued, by UTC date.

Nearby

Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordThe radar archive20132015

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.