A cold front moving into the Lowcountry with the potential for creating severe thunderstorms whipped up the surf keeping swimmers and surfers out of the ocean yet didn’t stop a woman from playing fetch with the dog on Thursday, March 31, 2022 at Burkes Beach on Hilton Head Island. Drew Martin [email protected]

While Saturday morning may bring some mild temperatures, beachgoers will need to pack up their umbrellas in time for severe thunderstorms to reach Hilton Head on Sunday.

A cold front that’s making its way across the country will help bring possible severe thunderstorms to Hilton Head and the rest of Beaufort County. On Sunday, Lowcountry residents and visitors can expect possible wind gusts over 60 miles per hour, isolated tornadoes and hail. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service expect the storm to arrive around 10 a.m. Sunday.

According to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the biggest concern is locally damaging winds. Compared to the thunderstorms that blew through earlier this month, the tornado risk is slightly higher. Damaging hail is also possible in a few locations.

This time, the air ahead of the cold front is warmer, so when the cold front hits that warmer air mass there is more fuel for the thunderstorm. Because the cold front will arrive in the area at the warmest period of the day, it’s likely that the storm will be most severe on the coastal plain, according to the DNR.

At the moment, it’s difficult to tell the exact time the storm will hit Hilton Head. The models that meteorologists use to forecast these storm systems tend to predict that this type of thunderstorm will move slower than it actually does. If the cold front arrives earlier, and it’s not as warm as the afternoon, then the difference in temperature will be smaller. Because of this temperature difference, the threat of severe weather is lower compared to the afternoon.