A multicell severe storm developed over western South Carolina during the late afternoon hours. The storm produced large, damaging hail as it moved south across the region.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS GSP wrote it up.
A multicell severe storm developed over western South Carolina during the late afternoon hours. The storm produced large, damaging hail as it moved south across the region.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at May 10, 4:41 PM EST, 52 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 541 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011 .SYNOPSIS... AN UPPER LEVEL RIDGE WILL CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN ACROSS THE EASTERN HALF OF THE COUNTRY THROUGH WEDNESDAY. A WEAK BOUNDARY THROUGH WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA INTO SOUTH CAROLINA WILL GRADUALLY MOVE WESTWARD AND THEN DISSIPATE. A CLOSED UPPER LOW WILL SLOWLY APPROACH THE AREA FROM THE WEST THIS WEEKEND. && .NEAR TERM /THROUGH WEDNESDAY/... 2140 UPDATE...POPS...SKY COVER...AND QPF HAVE BEEN RAISED IN THE SOUTHERN FOOTHILLS AND BLUE RIDGE OF NC...AND ADJACENT AREAS OF UPSTATE SC...BASED ON RADAR TRENDS. WOULD EXPECT MLCIN TO ERODE AS THE AFTERNOON WEARS ON AND THE AVAILABILITY OF POTENTIAL TRIGGERS TO INCREASE INTO THIS EVENING AS CENTRAL APPALACHIAN DEEP CONVECTION NEARS. SHORT RANGE MODEL RESPONSE IS IN GOOD AGREEMENT WITH RESPECT TO SENSIBLE WX...CLICKING OFF QPF ACRS THE NC MTNS/FTLHS THRU LATE AFTERNOON AND THEN INTO THE PIEDMONT THRU EARLY EVENING. MESOSCALE MODELS WOULD INFER THAT ANYTHING MORE THAN AN ISOLATED SVR WX WILL DEVELOP/TRANSLATE SE ACRS WESTERN NC CLOSER TO SYNOPTIC SCALE BNDRY/LLVL CONVERGENCE AXIS...AND WILL PLAN ON INCLUDING WORDING AS SUCH IN THE FCST. PERHAPS EVEN INTO A PORTION OF THE OVERNIGHT HOURS...IT STILL REMAINS FUZZY ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND/OR TRACK OF ANY ADDITIONAL CONVECTIVELY INDUCED VORTS TO MAINTAIN DEEP CONVECTION TOWARD WEDNESDAY MORNING. SENSIBLE WX OUTSIDE OF TSTM CHANCES WILL BE FAIR AND QUITE MILD WITH LATE NIGHT FOG PROBABILITIES AND WED AM MIN TEMPS 8-10 DEG F ABV CLIMO. UPPER RIDGE AXIS OFF TO OUR WEST POKES A BIT FURTHER EASTWARD ON WEDNESDAY AND DIURNAL DESTABILIZATION EXPECTED TO BE AT LEAST MODERATE...ESPECIALLY WHERE TEMPERATURES WARM WELL INTO THE 80S ACRS THE SW HALF OF THE CWFA. ALTHOUGH EFFECTIVE BULK SHEAR WILL BE EXPECTEDLY LESS THAN WHAT WE ARE SEEING TODAY...ISOLATED...DIURNALLY ENHANCED SVR STORMS WILL BE PROBABLE. && .SHORT TERM /WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY/... AS OF 120 PM TUESDAY...A HIGH AMPLITUDE RIDGE WILL BREAK DOWN DURING THIS SHORT TERM PERIOD OF THE FORECAST. SOME LEFT OVER CONVECTION CARRYING INTO WEDNESDAY EVENING WITH THE NW FLOW AND THEN A DECREASE THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING WITH THE RIDGE AXIS PASSING OVERHEAD. GREATEST INSTABILITY SHOULD BE OVER NE GA AND THE WESTERN UPSTATE WITH FAIRLY LIGHT WIND FIELDS. NOT A BIG CONCERN AS OF THIS TIME. HOWEVER...CONCERN PICKS UP AGAIN ON FRIDAY WITH LOW TO MID LEVEL WIND FIELDS INCREASING LATE IN THE DAY AS COLD FRONT APPROACHES FROM THE WEST. CAPE VALUES VARY DEPENDING OF THE MODEL BUT MAINLY 1000 TO 1500 IN THE GA TO CAROLINA PIEDMONT. EXPECT INCREASING COVERAGE OF SHOWERS AND STORMS LATE FRIDAY. HIGHS THURSDAY IN THE MID 80S UPPER SAVANNAH TO THE LOWER TO MID 70S NEAR THE TRIAD. HIGHS FRIDAY FROM LOWER 80S UPPER SAVANNAH TO UPPER 70S NW NC PIEDMONT. && .LONG TERM /FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY/... AS OF 200 PM TUESDAY...NEW GUIDANCE CONTINUES TO SUPPORT AN UNSETTLED WEATHER PATTERN FOR THE WEEKEND INTO THE FIRST PORTION OF NEXT WEEK. BY EARLY IN THE WEEKEND...THE UPPER RIDGE WILL SHIFT EAST OF THE AREA AS A CLOSED UPPER LOW MOVES SOUTHEAST FROM THE MIDWEST INTO THE DEEP SOUTH BY MONDAY. LEANED HEAVILY ON HPC GUIDANCE WHICH UTILIZED THE ECM/ECM ENSEMBLE MEAN EARLY ON THEN THE ECM/GFS ENSEMBLE MEANS FOR THE LATE IN THE FORECAST PERIOD. WITH THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS AND WESTERN CAROLINAS COMING UNDER INCREASING UPPER DIVERGENCE DURING THE WEEKEND...THE LIKELY POPS SEEM REASONABLE...WITH DAILY SOLID COVERAGE A GOOD BET THROUGH MON. A GENERAL COOLING TREND IN TEMPERATURES IS ALSO EXPECTED DUE TO WIDESPREAD CLOUDS/PRECIP AND LOWERING HEIGHTS. && .AVIATION /22Z TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY/... AT KCLT...STILL EXPECTING THE WINDS TO COME AROUND TO LIGHT SOUTHERLY THIS AFTERNOON AS VFR LVL CU DEVELOPS. TSTM CHANCES TO INCREASE BY EARLY EVENING AND HAVE TIMED THE GREATEST THREAT BTW 23 AND 01Z. IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN JUST HOW MUCH ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY REFORMS UPSTREAM OVERNIGHT...LEADING TO A SMALL OVERNIGHT DEEP CONVECTIVE POTENTIAL...BUT FOR NOW...WILL NOT INCLUDE ANY OVERNIGHT PCPN CHANCES. IN THE WAKE OF CONVECTIVE COMPLEXES... WINDS SHOULD SHIFT BACK TO NORTHERLY BY MORNING AND THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY OF MVFR LOW CLOUDS DRIFTING OUR WAY. ELSEWHERE...TSTM CHANCES STEADILY INCREASE FROM MID-AFTERNOON ONWARD...ESPECIALLY ACRS THE NORTHEAST FA...WHERE NUMEROUS TSTMS ARE EXPECTED TO OCCUR. VARYING DEGREES OF DEBRIS CLOUDS AND LATE NIGHT/EARLY MORNING LOWER CLOUDS ARE ON TAP FOR TONIGHT WITH MOSTLY MVFR VSBY RESTRICTIONS. OUTLOOK...SCATTERED CEILING AND VISIBILITY RESTRICTIONS IN THUNDERSTORMS MOST NUMEROUS OVER MOUNTAINS AND DURING AFTERNOONS AND EVENINGS WEDNESDAY THROUGH END OF WEEK. && .GSP WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... GA...NONE. NC...NONE. SC...NONE. && SYNOPSIS...LG NEAR TERM...CSH/JAT SHORT TERM...DEO LONG TERM...LG AVIATION...CSH
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC 341 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011 GAZ010-017-018-026-028-029-NCZ051-058-059-062>064-SCZ001-002-004-005- 010-011-019-110300- RABUN-HABERSHAM-STEPHENS-FRANKLIN-HART-ELBERT-SWAIN-GRAHAM- NORTHERN JACKSON-MACON-SOUTHERN JACKSON-TRANSYLVANIA- OCONEE MOUNTAINS-PICKENS MOUNTAINS-GREATER OCONEE-GREATER PICKENS- ANDERSON-ABBEVILLE-GREENWOOD- 341 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR NORTHEAST GEORGIA...WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA AND UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. UPPER LEVEL ENERGY WILL MOVE ACROSS THE REGION INTO TONIGHT...AIDING IN THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANIZATION. SOME OF THESE STORMS WILL HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BECOME SEVERE...PRODUCING LARGE HAIL... DAMAGING WIND GUSTS AND POSSIBLY EVEN A TORNADO. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY. NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SKYWARN SPOTTERS ARE REQUESTED TO FORWARD ANY REPORTS OF LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WINDS...TORNADOES OR FLASH FLOODING TO OUR OFFICE. NCZ033-035>037-048>050-052-053-056-057-065-068>072-082-501>510- SCZ003-006>009-012>014-110300- AVERY-ALEXANDER-IREDELL-DAVIE-MADISON-YANCEY-MITCHELL-HAYWOOD- BUNCOMBE-CATAWBA-ROWAN-HENDERSON-CLEVELAND-LINCOLN-GASTON- MECKLENBURG-CABARRUS-UNION NC-CALDWELL MOUNTAINS-GREATER CALDWELL- BURKE MOUNTAINS-GREATER BURKE-MCDOWELL MOUNTAINS-EASTERN MCDOWELL- RUTHERFORD MOUNTAINS-GREATER RUTHERFORD-POLK MOUNTAINS-EASTERN POLK- GREENVILLE MOUNTAINS-GREATER GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG-CHEROKEE-YORK- LAURENS-UNION SC-CHESTER- 341 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011 ...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH 269 IN EFFECT UNTIL 11 PM EDT THIS EVENING... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PIEDMONT NORTH CAROLINA...WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA AND UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT. PLEASE LISTEN TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR GO TO WEATHER.GOV ON THE INTERNET FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING HAZARDS. SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH. UPPER LEVEL ENERGY WILL MOVE ACROSS THE REGION INTO TONIGHT...AIDING IN THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANIZATION. SOME OF THESE STORMS WILL HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BECOME SEVERE...PRODUCING LARGE HAIL... DAMAGING WIND GUSTS AND POSSIBLY EVEN A TORNADO. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY. NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SKYWARN SPOTTERS ARE REQUESTED TO FORWARD ANY REPORTS OF LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WINDS...TORNADOES OR FLASH FLOODING TO OUR OFFICE. DEO
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
536 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0501 PM HAIL 3 S MORGANTON 35.70N 81.70W
05/10/2011 E1.25 INCH BURKE NC PUBLIC
SALEM COMMUNITY
&&
RWHPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
550 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0540 PM HAIL 3 SW CASAR 35.48N 81.66W
05/10/2011 E1.00 INCH CLEVELAND NC TRAINED SPOTTER
&&
RWHPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
551 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0455 PM HAIL 5 SSW MORGANTON 35.68N 81.73W
05/10/2011 M1.50 INCH BURKE NC TRAINED SPOTTER
HAIL COVERED THE GROUND. VERY LITTLE RAIN.
&&
MCAVOYSPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
551 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011
NCZ065-509-510-SCZ003-007-102215-
EASTERN POLK-GREENVILLE MOUNTAINS-HENDERSON-POLK
MOUNTAINS-SPARTANBURG-
551 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011
...STRONG THUNDERSTORMS WERE DEVELOPING OVER NORTHERN
GREENVILLE...NORTHWESTERN SPARTANBURG...SOUTHERN HENDERSON AND
WESTERN POLK COUNTIES THROUGH 615 PM EDT...
AT 545 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
STRONG THUNDERSTORMS DEVELOPING 5 MILES WEST OF TUXEDO...OR 8 MILES
SOUTH OF HENDERSONVILLE...MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 15 MPH.
THIS STORM WILL BE NEAR...
JONES GAP STATE PARK...
NORTH SALUDA RESERVOIR...
TRYON...
TIGERVILLE...
THESE STORMS MAY PRODUCE DIME SIZED HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO 30 MPH.
LAT...LON 3510 8204 3500 8254 3501 8254 3501 8258
3506 8260 3507 8257 3508 8260 3514 8262
3514 8258 3519 8260 3525 8261 3537 8213
LGPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
618 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0555 PM HAIL 3 NNW POLKVILLE 35.45N 81.67W
05/10/2011 E0.75 INCH CLEVELAND NC TRAINED SPOTTER
&&
MCAVOYSPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
619 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011
SCZ003-006-102245-
GREATER GREENVILLE-GREENVILLE MOUNTAINS-
619 PM EDT TUE MAY 10 2011
...A STRONG THUNDERSTORM WILL AFFECT NORTHERN GREENVILLE COUNTY
THROUGH 645 PM EDT...
AT 614 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
STRONG THUNDERSTORM 3 MILES WEST OF TIGERVILLE...OR 15 MILES NORTH OF
DOWNTOWN GREENVILLE...MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 30 MPH.
THIS STORM WILL BE NEAR...
TRAVELERS REST...
LAKE ROBINSON...
TAYLORS...
DIME SIZE HAIL...AND WIND GUSTS OF 30 TO 40 MPH ARE EXPECTED WITH
THIS STORM.
LAT...LON 3485 8246 3501 8255 3501 8254 3502 8255
3507 8257 3512 8261 3518 8246 3516 8245
3519 8242 3520 8238 3518 8237 3520 8228
3502 8222 3491 8223
LGThe Greer radar (KGSP), 25 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 22:31 UTC.
8 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
Hail up to golf ball size fell in a swath from Tigerville to the Taylors area.
Larger than baseball size hail damaged vehicles about 3 miles south of Tigerville.
Hail up to golf ball size fell in a nearly continuous swath from 5 miles southwest of Greer, across the Five Forks and Mauldin areas, ending in Fountain Inn.
Two inch diameter hail was measured at Summerwalk Place in the Five Forks area.
Quarter size hail fell along highway 14, north of Gray Court.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in South Carolina in 2011Every state in 2011This day in weather historyWarnings in South Carolina, May 2011
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 307471, 308093, 308095, 308096, 308101, 308103, 318287, 318288.