A few reports of damaging gusts and hail are possible for a few hours during the middle of the afternoon into the early evening hours.
A warm, humid and somewhat unstable air mass is expected over the Midlands as air temperatures approach the 70 degree mark. At the same time, a disturbance over north Alabama Thursday morning will approach from the west. An area of rain and a few thunderstorms are forecast around lunchtime Thursday in the Upstate, roughly along and north of I-85. Temperatures will be cooler and the air will be more stable in these areas, so strong thunderstorms are unlikely from Rock Hill to Greenville/Spartanburg and Clemson.
Neighborhoods farther south, from near Greenwood and Abbeville south to Aiken and eastward into the Columbia and Sumter areas will be warmer and more unstable. It is in these areas where a couple of thunderstorms are most likely to produce hail and strong wind gusts. The storms are likely to arrive between 3 and 6 PM. A widespread outbreak of severe thunderstorms is not currently forecast.
Thunderstorms are expected to arrive in the Pee Dee between 4 and 8 PM. Strong thunderstorms cannot be ruled out in the Florence, Darlington, and Hartsville areas, but atmospheric conditions are not expected to be quite as favorable for damaging winds and large hail after the sun sets and the influence of daytime heating diminishes.
The atmospheric disturbance primarily responsible for the rain and thunderstorms is expected to stay north of the Lowcountry.