Alert archive / South Carolina / Tornado Warnings

Tornado Warnings in South Carolina, 2022

59 tornado warnings in 2022. 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 2022. Tap one for its archive.

Tornado Warnings
59
Busiest month
April33 tornado warnings
Busiest day
April 5, 202231 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.

17 of 59 tornado warnings covering South Carolina in 2022 had a tornado report inside them; 30 of 42 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 18 minutes after it went out.

South Carolina, 2022

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
Tornado warnings591771%4271%18 min

Each office's whole area, 2022

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
NWS Columbia, SC: tornado warnings19763%12100%15 min
NWS Charleston, SC: tornado warnings16850%3379%27 min
NWS Wilmington, NC: tornado warnings15287%367%5 min
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC: tornado warnings38587%1540%24 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 3, 2:50 AM ESTTornado WarningCAEBamberg, Orangeburg25 min
Mar 23, 5:57 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPAbbeville, Anderson31 min
Mar 23, 9:27 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPOconee, Pickens48 min
Mar 23, 10:08 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenville, Pickens33 min
Mar 31, 12:03 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPChester, York27 min
Apr 5, 2:52 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenwood8 min
Apr 5, 2:55 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEAiken20 min
Apr 5, 3:00 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPChester, York30 min
Apr 5, 3:09 PM EDTTornado WarningCAENewberry36 min
Apr 5, 3:12 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEAiken, Barnwell, Orangeburg33 min
Apr 5, 3:29 PM EDTTornado Warning EmergencyCHSAllendale46 min
Apr 5, 4:00 PM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threatCAEBamberg, Orangeburg60 min
Apr 5, 4:13 PM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedCHSAllendale17 min
Apr 5, 4:27 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenwood22 min
Apr 5, 4:50 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEBamberg, Clarendon, Orangeburg55 min
Apr 5, 4:52 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSAllendale, Colleton, Hampton23 min
Apr 5, 4:53 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEBamberg22 min
Apr 5, 5:02 PM EDTTornado WarningCAECalhoun, Clarendon, Richland, Sumter28 min
Apr 5, 5:10 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEBamberg, Orangeburg50 min
Apr 5, 5:17 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSColleton, Dorchester43 min
Apr 5, 5:26 PM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedCHSJasper49 min
Apr 5, 5:33 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEAiken, Lexington, Richland42 min
Apr 5, 5:45 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSAllendale45 min
Apr 5, 5:50 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEBamberg, Barnwell, Orangeburg40 min
Apr 5, 6:13 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSBeaufort, Jasper47 min
Apr 5, 6:25 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEClarendon, Orangeburg24 min
Apr 5, 6:26 PM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedCAEBamberg, Orangeburg34 min
Apr 5, 6:27 PM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedCHSColleton, Dorchester, Hampton48 min
Apr 5, 6:34 PM EDTTornado WarningILMWilliamsburg26 min
Apr 5, 6:58 PM EDTTornado Warning Tornado observedConsiderable damage threatCAECalhoun, Clarendon, Orangeburg37 min
Apr 5, 6:59 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSCharleston, Colleton46 min
Apr 5, 7:18 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSBerkeley, Dorchester42 min
Apr 5, 7:22 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEClarendon, Orangeburg23 min
Apr 5, 7:34 PM EDTTornado WarningILMFlorence, Horry, Marion, Williamsburg26 min
Apr 5, 7:39 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEClarendon, Lee, Sumter36 min
Apr 5, 7:55 PM EDTTornado WarningILMFlorence, Williamsburg35 min
Apr 6, 5:09 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSBerkeley36 min
Apr 6, 10:59 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSColleton18 min
May 6, 4:13 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPGreenville, Pickens21 min
May 6, 6:00 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPYork31 min
May 6, 7:21 PM EDTTornado WarningILMDillon24 min
May 23, 4:25 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPAnderson35 min
May 23, 4:49 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPAnderson, Greenville, Pickens27 min
May 23, 6:35 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPChester25 min
May 23, 7:13 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPCherokee, Spartanburg32 min
May 26, 4:17 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPCherokee43 min
May 26, 4:45 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPCherokee45 min
May 26, 5:24 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPAbbeville, Greenwood, Laurens51 min
May 27, 5:58 AM EDTTornado WarningCAECalhoun, Clarendon, Orangeburg32 min
May 27, 4:24 PM EDTTornado WarningILMHorry, Marion36 min
Aug 19, 8:34 AM EDTTornado WarningILMHorry26 min
Sep 9, 11:31 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSCharleston29 min
Sep 10, 11:44 AM EDTTornado WarningILMHorry31 min
Sep 10, 3:29 PM EDTTornado WarningILMFlorence, Horry, Marion, Williamsburg31 min
Nov 10, 5:18 PM ESTTornado WarningCHSColleton, Dorchester27 min
Nov 11, 12:22 AM ESTTornado WarningCHSCharleston23 min
Nov 11, 1:32 AM ESTTornado WarningCAERichland, Sumter28 min
Nov 11, 3:22 AM ESTTornado WarningCAECalhoun, Lexington, Orangeburg, Richland29 min
Nov 11, 4:04 AM ESTTornado WarningILMFlorence26 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.

  1. April 5, 202231tornado warnings
  2. May 23, 20224tornado warnings
  3. November 11, 20224tornado warnings
  4. May 6, 20223tornado warnings
  5. May 26, 20223tornado warnings
  6. September 10, 20223tornado warnings
  7. March 24, 20222tornado warnings
  8. May 27, 20222tornado warnings
  9. January 3, 20221tornado warnings
  10. March 23, 20221tornado warnings
  11. March 31, 20221tornado warnings
  12. April 6, 20221tornado warnings

Nearby

Alerts in force nowTornadoes on recordThe radar archive20212023

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.