Alert archive / South Carolina / Tornado Warnings

Tornado Warnings in South Carolina, 2020

102 tornado warnings in 2020. 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 2020. Tap one for its archive.

Tornado Warnings
102
Busiest month
April41 tornado warnings
Busiest day
April 13, 202025 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.

34 of 102 tornado warnings covering South Carolina in 2020 had a tornado report inside them; 47 of 69 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 12 minutes after it went out.

South Carolina, 2020

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
Tornado warnings1023467%6968%12 min

Each office's whole area, 2020

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
NWS Columbia, SC: tornado warnings281546%2580%14 min
NWS Charleston, SC: tornado warnings201050%1989%12 min
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC: tornado warnings611379%2572%14 min
NWS Wilmington, NC: tornado warnings431663%4173%10 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 11, 7:54 PM ESTTornado WarningGSPAnderson36 min
Jan 11, 8:34 PM ESTTornado WarningGSPAbbeville, Greenwood, Laurens26 min
Jan 11, 9:36 PM ESTTornado WarningGSPChester, Union, York24 min
Jan 11, 9:37 PM ESTTornado WarningCAEFairfield, Newberry23 min
Feb 6, 10:24 AM ESTTornado WarningGSPCherokee, Spartanburg20 min
Feb 6, 10:28 AM ESTTornado WarningGSPAnderson17 min
Feb 6, 10:48 AM ESTTornado WarningGSPAnderson, Greenville, Laurens27 min
Feb 6, 11:08 AM ESTTornado WarningGSPAbbeville, Anderson37 min
Feb 6, 11:15 AM ESTTornado WarningGSPGreenville, Laurens, Spartanburg30 min
Feb 6, 11:37 AM ESTTornado WarningGSPLaurens23 min
Feb 6, 11:59 AM ESTTornado WarningGSPLaurens31 min
Feb 6, 1:18 PM ESTTornado WarningCAEMcCormick27 min
Feb 6, 1:24 PM ESTTornado WarningGSPAbbeville, Greenwood51 min
Feb 6, 2:28 PM ESTTornado WarningCAEAiken, Edgefield32 min
Feb 6, 4:51 PM ESTTornado WarningCAEBarnwell23 min
Apr 12, 11:10 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPAbbeville, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, Spartanburg35 min
Apr 13, 3:03 AM EDTTornado WarningGSPOconee27 min
Apr 13, 3:18 AM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenville, Oconee, Pickens27 min
Apr 13, 3:23 AM EDTTornado WarningGSPAnderson, Oconee, Pickens37 min
Apr 13, 3:41 AM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenville, Pickens34 min
Apr 13, 3:51 AM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenville, Pickens, Spartanburg24 min
Apr 13, 4:23 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEEdgefield, McCormick37 min
Apr 13, 5:14 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEAiken, Barnwell31 min
Apr 13, 5:37 AM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threatCAEAiken, Bamberg, Barnwell, Orangeburg23 min
Apr 13, 5:43 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEBamberg, Barnwell, Orangeburg32 min
Apr 13, 5:54 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSAllendale, Hampton36 min
Apr 13, 5:56 AM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threatCAEAiken, Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun, Lexington, Orangeburg34 min
Apr 13, 6:02 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSAllendale14 min
Apr 13, 6:09 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEBamberg, Barnwell, Orangeburg36 min
Apr 13, 6:13 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEBamberg, Calhoun, Orangeburg32 min
Apr 13, 6:18 AM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedCHSColleton, Hampton27 min
Apr 13, 6:22 AM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threatCAECalhoun, Clarendon, Orangeburg, Richland, Sumter23 min
Apr 13, 6:38 AM EDTTornado Warning EmergencyTornado observedCHSColleton, Hampton37 min
Apr 13, 7:01 AM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threatCHSColleton, Dorchester29 min
Apr 13, 7:26 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSBerkeley, Dorchester34 min
Apr 13, 7:54 AM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedCHSBerkeley18 min
Apr 13, 7:58 AM EDTTornado WarningILMGeorgetown, Williamsburg32 min
Apr 13, 8:00 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSCharleston, Colleton30 min
Apr 13, 8:26 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSCharleston34 min
Apr 13, 8:38 AM EDTTornado WarningILMGeorgetown, Horry26 min
Apr 25, 6:44 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPOconee, Pickens31 min
Apr 25, 7:10 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenville, Pickens35 min
Apr 25, 7:16 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPOconee29 min
Apr 25, 7:40 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenville, Spartanburg35 min
Apr 25, 7:50 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPOconee25 min
Apr 25, 8:24 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenville, Spartanburg36 min
Apr 25, 8:36 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPPickens24 min
Apr 25, 8:40 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPCherokee, York35 min
Apr 25, 9:11 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenville, Spartanburg34 min
Apr 25, 9:14 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPYork31 min
Apr 25, 9:40 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPCherokee, Spartanburg, Union35 min
Apr 25, 9:44 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPCherokee, York31 min
Apr 25, 10:06 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPYork24 min
Apr 25, 10:07 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPCherokee, Union, York38 min
Apr 25, 10:33 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPYork27 min
Apr 29, 6:18 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPAnderson12 min
May 4, 8:06 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPSpartanburg24 min
May 5, 6:35 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPChester25 min
May 5, 6:38 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPChester37 min
May 5, 6:55 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEKershaw, Lancaster35 min
May 20, 11:47 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSCharleston28 min
May 22, 3:31 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPCherokee, York29 min
May 22, 3:53 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPYork26 min
May 22, 4:24 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPChester7 min
May 22, 7:10 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEOrangeburg24 min
Aug 3, 8:03 PM EDTTornado WarningILMHorry17 min
Aug 24, 5:03 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSColleton42 min
Aug 24, 5:22 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSCharleston, Colleton, Dorchester53 min
Sep 17, 7:56 AM EDTTornado WarningCAERichland, Sumter34 min
Sep 17, 8:09 AM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedCAECalhoun, Richland, Sumter21 min
Sep 17, 9:33 AM EDTTornado WarningCAECalhoun, Orangeburg27 min
Sep 17, 10:00 AM EDTTornado WarningCAECalhoun, Clarendon, Orangeburg45 min
Sep 17, 10:44 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEClarendon, Sumter46 min
Sep 17, 11:01 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEClarendon, Sumter29 min
Sep 17, 11:27 AM EDTTornado WarningCAELee, Sumter48 min
Sep 17, 11:44 AM EDTTornado WarningCAECalhoun, Clarendon, Orangeburg, Sumter46 min
Sep 17, 12:39 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEClarendon, Sumter33 min
Sep 17, 12:56 PM EDTTornado WarningCAECalhoun, Clarendon, Orangeburg36 min
Sep 17, 1:11 PM EDTTornado WarningCAESumter49 min
Sep 17, 1:38 PM EDTTornado WarningILMDarlington, Florence37 min
Sep 17, 1:46 PM EDTTornado WarningILMHorry29 min
Sep 17, 3:02 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEClarendon, Sumter28 min
Sep 17, 3:17 PM EDTTornado WarningILMFlorence, Marion28 min
Sep 17, 3:44 PM EDTTornado WarningILMDillon, Florence, Marion9 min
Sep 17, 4:00 PM EDTTornado WarningILMDillon, Marion13 min
Sep 17, 6:51 PM EDTTornado WarningILMHorry24 min
Sep 25, 3:57 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEChesterfield, Kershaw33 min
Sep 25, 6:14 PM EDTTornado WarningILMDillon, Marion31 min
Sep 25, 9:08 PM EDTTornado WarningILMDillon, Marion37 min
Oct 10, 7:27 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPOconee48 min
Oct 11, 6:13 AM EDTTornado WarningGSPLaurens, Spartanburg, Union47 min
Oct 11, 6:54 AM EDTTornado WarningGSPCherokee, Laurens, Spartanburg, Union51 min
Oct 11, 1:59 PM EDTTornado WarningILMFlorence, Horry, Marion12 min
Oct 11, 3:15 PM EDTTornado WarningILMDillon30 min
Oct 11, 3:37 PM EDTTornado WarningILMHorry23 min
Oct 11, 4:32 PM EDTTornado WarningILMHorry43 min
Oct 11, 4:46 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPChester, York29 min
Oct 11, 5:10 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPChester, York35 min
Dec 24, 2:25 PM ESTTornado WarningILMHorry35 min
Dec 24, 2:55 PM ESTTornado WarningILMHorry35 min
Dec 24, 3:16 PM ESTTornado WarningILMHorry29 min
Dec 24, 6:25 PM ESTTornado WarningCHSColleton, Hampton35 min

By county

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

2 more counties

The busiest days

Days with the most alerts issued, by UTC date.

  1. April 13, 202025tornado warnings
  2. September 17, 202018tornado warnings
  3. February 6, 202011tornado warnings
  4. April 26, 202010tornado warnings
  5. October 11, 20208tornado warnings
  6. April 25, 20205tornado warnings
  7. January 12, 20204tornado warnings
  8. May 5, 20204tornado warnings
  9. May 22, 20204tornado warnings
  10. December 24, 20204tornado warnings
  11. August 24, 20202tornado warnings
  12. September 25, 20202tornado warnings

Nearby

Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordThe radar archive20192021

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.