COLUMBIA, S.C. — Monday marked one of the most active severe weather days in the Carolinas in years.
A line of strong storms moved out of Tennessee around midday and pushed through the two states bringing strong, damaging winds to South Carolina and even tornadoes to parts of the Charlotte area in North Carolina. Over the course of a few hours, the entire Midlands was under some sort of severe warning from the National Weather Service.
Almost 1300 storm reports were issued across the US with almost one-fourth of them being in the Carolinas.
A total of 139 damage reports came out of South Carolina with another 196 in North Carolina. This is the 4th most damage reports in the two states on a single calendar day in 20 years. Most of the damage reports were the result of straight-line wind damage. There are some severe events that have higher numbers but happened over the span of multiple days.
Outside of the Southeast, strong winds caused damage in the Mid Atlantic with trees falling on homes, and large hail falling from West Virginia to Maryland. This uncharacteristic severe event even saw strong storms form into the Upstate of New York.
This rare Summer severe outbreak has been part of a stormy and mild Summer this year in the Carolinas that looks to continue to lead to more storm chances later this week with temperatures expected to be right around average if not a little bit hotter.
Interestingly, this comes after a very quiet Spring that saw no official severe weather events in the state of South Carolina.