A tropical storm warning, the year's first for the United States, was issued on Friday by the National Weather Service for the coast of South Carolina, five days before the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, according to Reuters. The bulletin, posted by the weather service's National Hurricane Center in Miami, warned of tropical storm conditions within 36 hours along coastal South Carolina from the Savannah River north to the Little River Inlet. Tropical storms are defined as a cyclonic weather systems packing winds with sustained surface speeds ranging from 39 to 73 miles per hour (63 to 119 kilometers per hour). The current threat to South Carolina was posed by the formation of a tropical depression off the southeastern United States, marking the second such weather system of 2016, following one that grew into Hurricane Alex in the far eastern Atlantic in January, according to the Hurricane Center.
