Carolina Weather Group

This week, breaking news: The largest earthquakes in South Carolina since 2014 continue to rumble out of Elgin. The USGS says two earthquakes today, one a magnitude 3.5 and another 3.6, plus associated aftershocks, shook across the Carolinas, including in Columbia and reports of tremors as far away as Charlotte and Raleigh. The Carolina Weather Group's James Brierton is looking at the latest earth...

NOAA and the National Weather Service maintain a nationwide network of analog radio transmitters that provide life-saving information during severe weather. These 24/7 radio stations provide real-time forecasts, severe weather warnings, and updated observations throughout the Carolinas and United States. This week our guest is Bruce Jones of Midland Radio, one of the biggest manufacturers of weath...

Nadia Ramlagan, North Carolina News Service Faith and climate leaders convene in Charlotte this week, as the Southeast Climate and Energy Network and US Climate Action Network join forces. They're asking the nation to pay its fair share to help communities feeling the worst effects of climate change. Rev. Michael Malcom is the executive director of the Birmingham, Alabama-based People's Justice Co...

GOES-18, which launched March 1 as GOES-R, is continuing operational testing ahead of becoming the United States' newest weather satellite. Part of those tests, is the transmission of its initial test imagery. Our guest this week on the Carolina Weather Group is Dr. Dan Lindsey, the Chief Scientist for NOAA's GOES-R Program. Lindsey explains the ongoing testing, where the satellite is now, and wha...

Excessive heat will create dangerous weather conditions across North Carolina and South Carolina this week. A heat wave will impact the Carolinas through Friday. The high temperatures, combined with the humidity, will push the heat index over 100 degrees. The heat index is a measure of what the temperature outside really feels like. Weather this hot will make it hard for our bodies to cool down. W...

Thunderstorms are capable of reaching the tropopause: the boundary between the lowest layer of the atmosphere in which we live (the troposphere) and the layer immediately above (the stratosphere). If a storm overshoots the tropopause and extends into the stratosphere, it may lead to the transport of air between the two layers. This is called a stratosphere-troposphere exchange or STE. Dr. Cameron...

You can learn what it’s like to be a television weatherperson during a weeklong virtual career workshop from WCNC Charlotte. On this bonus episode of the Carolina Weather Group, James Brierton talks with WCNC Charlotte Brand Manager Stephanie Mackey about the station’s Pathways initiatives.  WCNC Charlotte is making a difference for high school and college students by hosting a series of educ...

Wednesday marks the start of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season. A tropical disturbance near the Yucatan Peninsula could become this year's first named storm. If named, it would become Alex. The tropical disturbance is expected to move over Florida before bringing the possibility of rough surf, rip currents, and erosion to the coasts of both North Carolina and South Carolina this weekend. The stor...

The 2022 hurricane season starts next week and both NOAA’s National Hurricane Center and the researchers at Colorado State University are calling for an above-normal hurricane season. Our guest this week, is Dr. Phil Klotzbach, one of the acclaimed CSU Tropical Weather and Climate Research team. Their tropical outlook, issued early each spring, is a leader in forecasting the tropics. Klotzbach exp...

This week we're catching up with Alex Forbes, a broadcast meteorologist with WMAZ-TV in Macon, Georgia. When Alex last appeared on the Carolina Weather Group in 2020, he was a meteorology student at Mississippi Student University who had conducted a study that found a lot of the public is confused by the classifications used on the Storm Prediction Center's severe weather outlook. Revisit that int...

Justin Ballard is a meteorologist whose weather forecasts can be heard on South Carolina Public Radio.  Ballard, who is a University of North Carolina at Charlotte alum, is based at the University of Florida in Gainesville. From there, he produces weather forecasts and storm coverage for WUFT-FM and WRUF-TV in Florida and also the South Carolina Emergency Information Network. He is also a men...

Executive orders aimed at driving down greenhouse-gas emissions are still not enough to reach North Carolina's 50% reduction goal by 2030, a report by the Environmental Defense Fund found. The report showed under current state policies, North Carolina is on track to shrink emissions by 28% to 38%, far below its target. Michelle Allen, project manager of North Carolina political affairs for the Env...

Yet another round of severe thunderstorms is on the way for Friday afternoon and night. This event could be worse than the other severe storms this week. A cold front moving into the near-summery air mass that we have in place across North Carolina and South Carolina will be the trigger for the storms. As a result, the National Weather SErvice's Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has put most of the st...

It's National Hurricane Preparedness with the start of the 2022 hurricane season less than a month away -- but should the hurricane season start earlier than June 1st? That's one of the questions we discuss with hurricane expert and meteorologist Michael Lowry during these never-before-seen moments from our 2021 interview with him. Lowry, who previously worked at The Weather Channel, just announce...

One of the largest and most comprehensive severe storm field campaigns to date is taking place across the Southeast region of the United States, including in portions of the Carolinas. The PERiLS tornado study, which stands for Propagation, Evolution, and Rotation in Linear Storms, will leverage dozens of remote sensing technology to study tornado-producing thunderstorms commonly called QLCS (or q...

Duke Energy's solar panel rebate program expires this year, and faith groups such as the North Carolina Council of Churches and Interfaith Power and Light are urging churches across the state to take advantage of the program during National Faith Climate Action Week , which begins today. Anne Hodges-Copple, bishop suffragan of the Diocese of North Carolina, said dozens of North Carolina congregati...

Tired of tornado warnings in other counties interrupting your television programming? Never again! New technology, beginning to roll out nationwide, could offer a solution. As broadcast stations across the country deploy ATSC 3.0, a standard more commonly known as NextGen television, a future where severe weather and breaking news coverage is geo-targeted to separate viewers in specific locations...

While fires can certainly be devastating and destructive, fire can - when properly managed - have benefits for the environment. Our guest this week is Adam Warwick, the Stewardship Manager at The Nature Conservancy - North Carolina Southern Blue Ridge Office. Warwick discusses the ways that renewed forests and woodlands can benefit plants and animals. Officials can manage this environmental cycle...

The National Weather Service has completed extensive storm surveys detailing the 10 tornadoes confirmed in South Carolina on April 5 and 6. Their investigation found evidence from the historic storms, including an EF-3 tornado in Allendale, Orangeburg, and Bamberg counties that was on the ground for over 35 miles.  Amazingly no one was killed in the Carolinas by these tornadoes. The storm sur...

A thunderstorm complex packing damaging winds and possibly a few tornadoes will arrive in South Carolina later this afternoon into the evening hours. An enhanced risk (level 3/5) is in place across much of SC, including Columbia and Charleston. Carolina Weather Group’s Jared Smith has the latest. LEAVE A TIP: https://streamelements.com/carolinawxgroup/tip SUBSCRIBE TO OUR PODCAST: https://anchor.f...

As we begin our stream this week, there is a major severe weather event occurring across portions of the Deep South, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama. Thunderstorms are producing life-threatening tornadoes in addition to dangerous hail and winds. We're analyzing the unfolding situation. We're forecasting ahead to Thursday. This is when the same cold front currently producin...

Learn about storm development and radar interpretation during Tuesday night's free advanced SKYWARN training class in conjunction with the National Weather Service office in Columbia,  South Carolina the Carolina Weather Group. Register: https://t.co/ysRUfAX5Oq  And we're back Wednesday with another episode dedicated to severe weather: looking back at last week's tornadoes, and looking ahead to a...

Severe storms in Pickens County, South Carolina caused damage to homes Wednesday night. Gerald Mengel, a storm chaser, details the preliminary reports of storm damage from the potential tornado and severe thunderstorms in Upstate South Carolina Wednesday. The National Weather Service from Greenville-Spartanburg will visit Pickens County Thursday to conduct a formal storm survey. LEAVE A TIP: https...

A chance of severe weather across both North Carolina and South Carolina Wednesday could bring severe thunderstorms capable of damaging wind and a few tornadoes. The Carolina Weather Group's Jared Smith in Charleston, South Carolina, and Scotty Powell in Morganton, South Carolina, provide an updated forecast analysis to explain the impact and probability of severe weather in the Carolinas Wednesda...

South Carolina Assistant State Climatologist Melissa Griffin shows how to record, measure, and report rainfall totals observed in your backyard through a volunteer program called CoCoRaHS. CoCoRaHS (pronounced KO-ko-rozz) is a grassroots volunteer network of backyard weather observers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow) in their local...