Alert archive / South Carolina / Tornado Warnings

Tornado Warnings in South Carolina, 2015

12 tornado warnings in 2015. 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 2015. Tap one for its archive.

Tornado Warnings
12
Busiest month
April6 tornado warnings
Busiest day
April 19, 20154 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.

6 of 12 tornado warnings covering South Carolina in 2015 had a tornado report inside them; 10 of 17 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 11 minutes after it went out.

South Carolina, 2015

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
Tornado warnings12650%1759%11 min

Each office's whole area, 2015

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
NWS Columbia, SC: tornado warnings5340%560%12 min
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC: tornado warnings40100%20%
NWS Charleston, SC: tornado warnings5340%1182%9 min
NWS Wilmington, NC: tornado warnings6350%956%5 min

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 4, 3:03 PM ESTTornado WarningCHSJasper42 min
Jan 4, 3:29 PM ESTTornado WarningCHSBeaufort, Jasper20 min
Apr 19, 3:40 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEAiken35 min
Apr 19, 4:10 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEAiken, Lexington50 min
Apr 19, 4:24 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEEdgefield, Lexington, Saluda36 min
Apr 19, 5:15 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEFairfield, Lexington, Richland30 min
Apr 20, 3:54 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPAnderson, Greenville36 min
Apr 20, 6:02 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPChester, York28 min
Aug 31, 2:12 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSDorchester33 min
Sep 25, 12:38 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSCharleston37 min
Sep 25, 12:45 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSBerkeley, Charleston, Dorchester45 min
Dec 23, 2:05 PM ESTTornado WarningCAEFairfield, Lexington, Richland27 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 archive20142016

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.