Alert archive / South Carolina / Tornado Warnings

Tornado Warnings in South Carolina, 2025

22 tornado warnings in 2025. 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 2025. Tap one for its archive.

Tornado Warnings
22
Busiest month
March11 tornado warnings
Busiest day
March 16, 20257 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 22 tornado warnings covering South Carolina in 2025 had a tornado report inside them; 5 of 8 tornado reports fell inside a warning, on average 11 minutes after it went out.

South Carolina, 2025

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
Tornado warnings22673%863%11 min

Each office's whole area, 2025

WarningsWith a reportFalse alarm ratioReportsInside a warningMean lead time
NWS Charleston, SC: tornado warnings7186%1100%1 min
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC: tornado warnings7443%580%11 min
NWS Columbia, SC: tornado warnings13377%667%10 min
NWS Wilmington, NC: tornado warnings4325%367%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
Feb 13, 11:06 AM ESTTornado WarningCHSBeaufort, Jasper22 min
Feb 16, 5:10 AM ESTTornado WarningGSPAnderson, Oconee, Pickens35 min
Mar 5, 7:17 AM ESTTornado WarningCAEFairfield, Lexington, Newberry, Richland, Saluda28 min
Mar 5, 7:22 AM ESTTornado WarningGSPChester23 min
Mar 5, 7:35 AM ESTTornado WarningCAECalhoun, Lexington, Richland25 min
Mar 16, 6:15 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEAiken30 min
Mar 16, 6:31 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEAiken, Edgefield29 min
Mar 16, 6:55 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEBarnwell24 min
Mar 16, 7:01 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSAllendale20 min
Mar 16, 7:14 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEBamberg, Barnwell31 min
Mar 16, 7:39 AM EDTTornado WarningCAEFairfield, Lexington, Newberry, Richland36 min
Mar 16, 8:55 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSAllendale18 min
Mar 31, 3:37 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEEdgefield, McCormick, Saluda23 min
May 3, 9:50 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPPickens25 min
May 12, 7:23 PM EDTTornado WarningGSPAbbeville37 min
May 30, 3:45 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEChesterfield, Lancaster30 min
May 30, 4:44 PM EDTTornado WarningCAECalhoun, Clarendon, Sumter31 min
May 30, 5:04 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEClarendon26 min
Jun 9, 8:49 PM EDTTornado WarningCAELexington, Richland26 min
Jun 9, 8:59 PM EDTTornado WarningCAEFairfield, Richland31 min
Jun 10, 9:43 AM EDTTornado WarningCHSBeaufort, Charleston, Colleton19 min
Jul 10, 5:13 PM EDTTornado WarningCHSJasper28 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 archive20242026

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.