Scattered thunderstorms developed in the late morning hours along the sea breeze in southeast South Carolina. Lightning from one thunderstorm struck a house and caused damage.
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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 CHS wrote it up.
Scattered thunderstorms developed in the late morning hours along the sea breeze in southeast South Carolina. Lightning from one thunderstorm struck a house and caused damage.
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 Charleston, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 17, 9:53 AM EST, 1 hour 53 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Charleston SC 1053 AM EDT SUN JUL 17 2016 .SYNOPSIS... Through early next week, Atlantic high pressure will extend west over the region, and a trough of low pressure will linger inland. A cold front will advance into the Southeast around mid week. This front should then stall and dissipate over or near the region as high pressure builds from the north and shifts over the area late week into next weekend. && .NEAR TERM /THROUGH TONIGHT/... Late this morning: The set up looks a bit different today as seen on water vapor imagery showing a band of deeper moisture that stretches from the northeastern Gulf, up along the eastern seaboard, and toward the New England coast. KCHS is solidly within the moisture as evidenced by a +2 inch precipitable water value off the 12z RAOB. Also, the inland lee trough seems to be far less defined than in previous days, likely making it less of a trigger for diurnal convection. Instead, the radar looks similar to 24 hours ago with isolated to scattered coverage over the coastal waters, and the first land development starting along the Charleston County coast. Given that the lee trough is expected to be less of a factor today, initiation and the most early coverage is expected to be centered along the coast. Then the suite of models show coverage decreasing from the north and focusing across southeast Georgia as the belt of deep moisture decreases from the north and drops southward. The overall severe threat is quite low, but as with previous days we cannot completely count out a couple of strong to severe storms. DCAPE values are likely to be 800 J/kg or less, and mid level lapse rates continue to be quite weak. Could see a wet microburst potential, especially where multi-cell clusters can develop and boundary interactions occur. Tonight: Some lingering showers and thunderstorms are possible, though with the building ridge from the west, the best chance will be over the marine area. && .SHORT TERM /MONDAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY/... Atlantic surface high pressure to our east and an inland trough of low pressure just to our west will persist through Wednesday. Aloft, the region will remain under or close to a weak trough on the eastern edge of the upper level ridge. The persistent nature of these systems will result in only subtle day to day changes in sensible weather, often driven by leftover convective boundaries, the sea breeze during the day, the land breeze at night and the interaction of convection with these boundaries. There will be widely scattered to scattered mainly afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms. Due to high precipitable water values and likely slow motion of thunderstorms, any training thunderstorms would be capable of producing torrential rainfall and a risk for minor flooding of low lying and poor drainage areas. In addition, afternoon and evening CAPE values from 2500 to 3500 J/KG could support brief/isolated strong to marginally severe pulse thunderstorms possibly producing damaging wet microbursts; however, organized/significant severe weather appears unlikely. As was the case Saturday evening, some of the thunderstorms could produce excessive to nearly continuous lightning. Those outside need to be prepared to seek shelter should thunderstorms threaten. High temperatures will depend on cloud cover and location, timing and coverage of thunderstorms, but overall expect highs from the lower to mid 90s inland to the mid to upper 80s at the beaches. It will be mild and muggy at night with lows in the mid to upper 70s inland to the lower 80s at the beaches. Heat index values will likely reach 103 to 107 degrees each afternoon but at the present time it looks like values will remain below the advisory threshold level of 110 degrees. && .LONG TERM /WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH SATURDAY/... A weakening cold front is expected to push into the Southeast during the beginning of this period as an upper level trough over New England helps to erode the upper level ridge over the area a bit. Then surface high pressure is expected to shift south into the region by late in the week and into next weekend. Typical widely scattered to scattered showers and thunderstorms are expected mainly each afternoon and evening. Highs will range from the mid to upper 80s at and near the beaches to the lower to mid 90s inland. Expect lows mainly mid to upper 70s with near 80 at the beaches. && .AVIATION /15Z SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY/... The main question for the 12z TAF period is the potential for thunderstorms at the terminals. Hi-resolution models are more aggressive today in generating thunderstorms around noon and in the early afternoon near KCHS and KSAV that they have been in previous days. Therefore, have kept the prevailing VCTS at both sites and introduced a TEMPO for TSRA starting around 16-17z and continuing through 18-19z. Any potential for additional thunder in the late afternoon and evening is much more uncertain. Otherwise, outside of thunderstorms VFR conditions will prevail. Extended Aviation Outlook: Mainly VFR outside showers/thunderstorms. && .MARINE... Outside of showers and thunderstorms, expect southerly to southwesterly winds to prevail through Wednesday. The winds will be enhanced by the daily sea breeze and surging to some extent each night, but still expect speeds to be 15 knots or less. Looks like seas should mainly be in the 2 to 3 foot range. In typical fashion for this time of year, thunderstorms will occasionally produce locally hazardous conditions. A cold front looks to push into the waters Wednesday night or Thursday, possibly altering winds/seas over the waters. At the present time, it appears the conditions will remain below small craft advisory thresholds into the weekend. && .CHS WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... GA...None. SC...None. MARINE...None. && NEAR TERM...BSH/JRL SHORT TERM...MTE LONG TERM...MTE AVIATION...BSH/MTE MARINE...JRL/MTE
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON SC 349 AM EDT SUN JUL 17 2016 AMZ330-350-352-354-374-GAZ087-088-099>101-114>119-137>141-SCZ040- 042>045-047>052-181145- CHARLESTON HARBOR- WATERS FROM SOUTH SANTEE RIVER TO EDISTO BEACH SC OUT 20 NM- WATERS FROM EDISTO BEACH SC TO SAVANNAH GA OUT 20 NM- WATERS FROM SAVANNAH GA TO ALTAMAHA SOUND GA OUT 20 NM...INCLUDING GRAYS REEF NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY- WATERS FROM SAVANNAH GA TO ALTAMAHA SOUND GA EXTENDING FROM 20 TO 60 NM-JENKINS-SCREVEN-CANDLER-BULLOCH-EFFINGHAM-TATTNALL-EVANS- INLAND BRYAN-COASTAL BRYAN-INLAND CHATHAM-COASTAL CHATHAM-LONG- INLAND LIBERTY-COASTAL LIBERTY-INLAND MCINTOSH-COASTAL MCINTOSH- ALLENDALE-HAMPTON-INLAND COLLETON-DORCHESTER-INLAND BERKELEY- INLAND JASPER-BEAUFORT-COASTAL COLLETON-CHARLESTON-COASTAL JASPER- TIDAL BERKELEY- 349 AM EDT SUN JUL 17 2016 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR ATLANTIC COASTAL WATERS...SOUTHEAST GEORGIA AND SOUTHEAST SOUTH CAROLINA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. THE PROBABILITY FOR WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY. THE PROBABILITY FOR WIDESPREAD HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS LOW. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ASSISTANCE IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME.
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON SC
1217 PM EDT SUN JUL 17 2016
SCZ048-171645-
BEAUFORT SC-
1217 PM EDT SUN JUL 17 2016
...STRONG THUNDERSTORMS WILL IMPACT PORTIONS OF BEAUFORT COUNTY UNTIL
1245 PM EDT...
AT 1217 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
STRONG THUNDERSTORM OVER BLUFFTON...MOVING EAST AT 10 MPH.
HAZARD...STRONG WINDS 45 TO 55 MPH.
IMPACT...EXPECT MINOR DAMAGE TO TREE LIMBS AND BLOWING AROUND OF
LIGHT...UNSECURED OBJECTS.
SOME LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THIS STORM INCLUDE... HILTON HEAD
ISLAND...BLUFFTON...BEAUFORT...PORT ROYAL...SHELL POINT... FOLLY
FIELD...FOREST BEACH AND HILTON HEAD AIRPORT.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
TORRENTIAL RAINFALL IS ALSO OCCURRING WITH THIS STORM AND MAY LEAD TO
FLOODING OF LOW LYING AND POOR DRAINAGE AREAS. DO NOT DRIVE YOUR
VEHICLE THROUGH FLOODED ROADWAYS.
REPORT DAMAGE DIRECTLY TO THE CHARLESTON NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE AT
1-888-383-2024 WHEN IT IS SAFE TO DO SO. YOU CAN ALSO EMAIL YOUR
REPORT TO NWS.CHARLESTONSC@NOAA.GOV.
&&
LAT...LON 3212 8090 3233 8094 3235 8093 3236 8091
3235 8088 3237 8086 3243 8068 3220 8063
3215 8069
TIME...MOT...LOC 1617Z 254DEG 9KT 3227 8083The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 108 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 16:46 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
A trained spotter reported that a house was struck by lightning in the 1000 block of Beresford Run. The home was damaged by the strike.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in South Carolina in 2016Every state in 2016This day in weather historyWarnings in South Carolina, July 2016
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: 652373.