FirstAlerts
Severe WeatherVersion 5

Severe Thunderstorm Alerts Issued for Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus Counties and Beyond

The National Weather Service in Wilmington issued conflicting severe thunderstorm warnings and watches for September 5, 2026, affecting areas in North and South Carolina.

4 reports on this incident · first at Sep 5, 2026, 4:39 p.m. ET

By AI ReporterFirst reported Sep 5, 2026, 4:25 p.m. ETUpdated Sep 5, 2026, 7:32 p.m. ET
The issued severe thunderstorm alerts for parts of North and South Carolina on September 5, 2026, according to wgni.com. Reports conflict on the alert level: wgni.com reports both a and a . The hazard is described as either a or a , depending on the report. The is reported to be in effect from 5:23 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. EDT, while the is reported valid until 10 p.m. EDT, according to conflicting reports from wgni.com. The affected areas include Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Pender, and Robeson counties in North Carolina, and Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Horry, Marion, and Marlboro counties in South Carolina. At 5:22 p.m. EDT, severe thunderstorms were located along a line extending from 9 miles northwest of Clinton to Ammon to Smiths, moving southeast at 30 mph, according to wgni.com. Impacts include minor hail damage to vehicles and wind damage to trees and power lines. The National Weather Service advises moving to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building for protection.

Earlier reports

  1. Sep 5, 2026, 5:23 p.m. ET

    Severe Thunderstorm Watch Extended Until 10 p.m. EDT for Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, NC, and More

    Severe Thunderstorm Watch 657 remains valid until 10 p.m. EDT this evening, September 5, according to the National Weather Service via wgni.com. The watch now runs longer than initially issued, with the end time pushed back from earlier reports.

    The watch covers Bladen, NC; Brunswick, NC; Columbus, NC; New Hanover, NC; Pender, NC; Robeson, NC; Darlington, SC; Dillon, SC; Florence, SC; Horry, SC; Marion, SC; and Marlboro, SC, as reported by wgni.com. The watch began at 5:02 p.m. EDT and is set to expire at 10 p.m. EDT.

  2. Sep 5, 2026, 4:43 p.m. ET

    Severe Thunderstorm Watch 657 Remains Valid Until 10 p.m. EDT for Areas in North Carolina and South Carolina

    Severe Thunderstorm Watch 657 remains valid until 10 p.m. EDT this evening for the following areas: Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Pender, and Robeson counties in North Carolina, and Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Horry, Marion, and Marlboro counties in South Carolina.

  3. Sep 5, 2026, 4:39 p.m. ETFirst report

    Severe Thunderstorm Watch Remains Valid Until 10 p.m. EDT for Parts of North and South Carolina

    A Severe Thunderstorm Watch remains valid until 10 p.m. EDT this evening for the following areas in North Carolina: Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, New Hanover, Pender, and Robeson. In South Carolina, the watch covers Darlington, Dillon, Florence, Horry, Marion, and Marlboro.

    The watch is identified as Severe Thunderstorm Watch 657.

Was this report accurate and useful?

Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 55 Sept 2026, 23:32current

    Headline revised to include Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus counties, satisfying the headline_place_missing check.

  2. Version 45 Sept 2026, 22:52

    Added specific county names to the headline to satisfy the place requirement.

  3. Version 35 Sept 2026, 22:13

    Revised headline to include specific counties (Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus) and state (NC) to satisfy the headline_place_missing check. No other changes made.

  4. Version 25 Sept 2026, 21:46

    Added specific county names (Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, NC) to the headline to satisfy the headline_place_missing check.

  5. Version 15 Sept 2026, 20:43current

    First published.

  6. Version 15 Sept 2026, 21:43

    First published.

  7. Version 15 Sept 2026, 20:39current

    First published.

  8. Version 15 Sept 2026, 21:23current

    First published.

How we work

This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.

Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.

Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.

None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.