FIRST ALERT: Damaging wind gusts the main threat with our morning cold front
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – Damaging wind gusts and a brief tornado can’t be ruled out this morning as our cold front moves through.
First Alert Headlines.
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First Alert Summary
Good morning! Today remains a First Alert Weather Day for heavy rain and strong winds with a cold front passing through the Carolinas. Waking up this morning, the Eastern Midlands remain in a Level 3 of 5 ‘Enhanced’ risk of severe weather. As these showers and storms move through, damaging wind gusts up to 75 MPH and a brief tornado are the main threats. The best chance at a severe storm will occur along I-95.
Starting around 7 AM, this line of thunderstorms will move into our western counties. By 9 AM, this line will be across the heart of the Midlands, with showers and storms shifting to the I-95 corridor by 11 AM. As we head throughout the morning, this cold front will gain strength, which is why the greatest threat for severe weather is along I-95.
Around Noon, our severe weather threat will come to a close as our cold front moves offshore. This afternoon, skies will partially clear behind our cold front, revealing some broken sunshine. A Wind Advisory will remain in effect until 7 PM for wind gusts up to 45 MPH. Post-frontal sunshine will help high temperatures reach the low and mid-70s this afternoon.
We’ll dry out behind today’s cold front and winds will remain breezy, which means fire danger will remain an elevated concern. Temperatures will also drop quickly, with highs only in the upper-50s Thursday afternoon. By Friday morning, we’ll once again wake up with temperatures in the 30s.
First Alert Forecast
Today (First Alert Weather Day): Widespread showers and storms before lunchtime. Damaging wind gusts are possible with a few of these storms. Chance of rain 100%. Skies partially clear this afternoon with highs in the low and mid-70s.
Tonight: Partial clearing of thick cloud cover overnight. Windy, with lows around 40 degrees.
Thursday: Lots of sunshine. Windy and cooler, with highs in the upper-50s.
Friday: Partly cloudy skies. Highs in the mid and upper-60s.
Saturday: Partly to mostly cloudy. A slight chance of rain late in the day. Highs in the mid-70s.
Sunday: Scattered showers in the morning with partial clearing for the afternoon. Chance of rain 40%. Highs in the upper-50s.
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A line of heavy thunderstorms that caused widespread wind damage across the South on Tuesday is now moving through the Carolinas. Expect the line to intensify this morning as it sweeps east. Primary impact is expected to come between 7:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. The greatest risk for high winds and brief tornadoes will be in the eastern half of the Triad.
President Donald Trump gave an address to the members of the United States Congress on Tuesday. He spoke on his executive actions in the first few weeks in office, his plans for his presidency. We worked to verify the claims made during the speech. Get the facts below:
Claim: “Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border, and I deployed the U.S. military and border patrol to repel the invasion of our country, and what a job they’ve done as a result. Illegal border crossings, last month, were by far the lowest ever recorded, ever. They heard my words, and they chose not to come, much easier that way. In comparison, under Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, there were hundreds of 1000s of illegal crossings a month, and virtually all of them, including murderers, drug dealers, gang members and people from mental institutions and insane asylums were released into our country.”
Get the Facts: The Hearst Television Data Team analyzed ICE arrest and deportation data from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics to provide a more contextual look at how the past few administrations have carried out immigration policies.
The most recent complete data on ICE arrests and deportations from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics is three months behind, with ICE working toward publishing enforcement statistics every month, according to an ICE spokesperson.
Get the Facts in the related story below
Claim: “Joe Biden especially let the price of EGGS get out of control—and we are working hard to get it back down. A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the cost of energy.”
Get the Facts: The Hearst Television Data team recently analyzed prices and found the price of eggs has fluctuated over the last two years, ranging from its highest price – $4.95 per dozen – to a low in August 2023 of $2.04 per dozen. Prices were nearly as high as they are now in the winter and spring of 2023, when an outbreak of avian flu led to lower supplies. Similarly, the USDA says prices are currently high due to a loss of production due to avian flu. While the USDA predicts production to increase this year, they also predict that the price of eggs will increase 41% in 2025. While the Trump administration is optimistic its new plan to address avian flu will help prices, economists say they don’t see much changing over the next few months.
Read more:
President Trump releases plan for avian flu: https://apnews.com/article/record-egg-prices-usda-bird-flu-virus-92e9f5fbc4e0a792be484a4aee5b9c16
USDA Poultry, Dairy, Livestock outlook February 2025: https://ers.usda.gov/sites/default/files/_laserfiche/outlooks/110972/LDP-M-368.pdf?v=21887
Claim: Trump claimed that inflation is the worst the U.S. has seen in 48 years, saying, “We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country.”
Get the Facts: The Bureau of Labor Statistics monitors and keeps records about inflation. Trump’s suggestion that inflation under the Biden Administration was the worst in U.S. history is not supported by historical data. According to BLS data, inflation rates during the late 1970s and early 1980s were significantly higher than in recent years. According to BLS and factcheck.org, the period from June 1919 to June 1920 saw the largest 12-month increase of the Consumer Price Index in U.S. history. At that time, the CPI rose to 23.7 percent.
Inflation peaked at 9.1% in 2022 under President Joe Biden. Inflation-adjusted incomes have grown steadily since mid-2023. Inflation, while showing signs of stickiness in recent months and still elevated at 3% in January, is down from its 2022 peak.
The Hearst Television Data Team also examined the January inflation and Consumer Price Index numbers and found that it was a setback for the economy.
Read more:
Consumer Price Index: https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/one-hundred-years-of-price-change-the-consumer-price-index-and-the-american-inflation-experience.htm
Factcheck.org previously fact-checked Trump’s similar comments about inflation during his 2025 inaugural address: https://www.factcheck.org/2025/01/factchecking-trumps-inaugural-address/
BLS’ Consumer Price Index news release from June 2022: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_07132022.htm
Claim: Trump said that “small business optimism saw its single largest one-month gain ever recorded—a 41-point jump.”
Get the Facts: The National Federation of Independent Business tracks small business optimism and releases a monthly survey. The survey released in January 2025 shows there was a notable increase in optimism following Trump’s election. However, the figure of a “41-point jump” isn’t supported by that survey.
The NFIB, in January 2025, reported that its Small Business Optimism Index fell by 2.3 points to 102.8.
The month prior, in December 2024, a single segment of the NFIB Small Business Optimism Index survey showed that “the net percent of owners expecting the economy to improve rose 41 points from October to a net 36%.” NFIB said that was the highest since June 2020, and that “this component had the greatest impact on the overall increase in the Optimism Index.” However, in the aforementioned January 2025 survey, NFIB said that the net percent of owners expecting the economy to improve fell five points from December.
In releasing the survey in January, NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said, “Overall, small business owners remain optimistic regarding future business conditions, but uncertainty is on the rise. Hiring challenges continue to frustrate Main Street owners as they struggle to find qualified workers to fill their many open positions. Meanwhile, fewer plan capital investments as they prepare for the months ahead.”
Read more:
NFIB Monthly Report from January 2025: https://www.nfib.com/news-article/monthly_report/sbet/
The NFIB release from December 2024: https://www.nfib.com/news-article/new-nfib-survey-small-business-optimism-jumps-above-50-year-average-in-november/
Claim: “And I have also impose a 25% tariff on foreign aluminum, copper, lumber and steel, because if we don’t have as an example, steel and lots of other things, we don’t have a military, and frankly, won’t have we just won’t have a country very long.”
Get the Facts: Trump claimed that tariffs would be the key to making America rich again. While the result of Trump’s tariff has yet to be seen, the Hearst Television Data Team has investigated where and from whom the U.S. imports its steel and aluminum.
Get the Facts in the related story below
Claim: “Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again,” Trump said. “And it’s happening. And it will happen rather quickly. There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re okay with that. It won’t be much.”
Get the Facts: Trump is banking on the idea that taxing imports is the road to riches for the United States. Most economists say Trump’s tariffs would hurt the country, as they’re tax increases that could raise the costs of goods in ways that could also harm economic growth. Trump suggests that the impact on inflation would be minimal.
When the Yale University Budget Lab looked at the tariffs that Trump imposed Tuesday on Canada, Mexico and China, it found that inflation would increase a full percentage point, growth would fall by half a percentage point and the average household would lose about $1,600 in disposable income.
Read more:
AP coverage of Trump’s speech: https://apnews.com/live/donald-trump-address-congress-updates
Claim: Trump said that polls focused on how Americans feel about the direction the country is headed in show that Americans believe the country is headed in a positive direction. Trump said, “Now, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the RIGHT direction than the WRONG direction—a 27-point swing since Election Day.”
Get the Facts: Several recent public opinion polls have touched on the subject. A Reuters/Ipsos survey released the day of Trump’s address to Congress shows that “many Americans remain pessimistic about the direction of the country generally.” That same poll shows that 34% of Americans say the country is going in the right direction, while 49% say it is off on the wrong track.
In its “Satisfaction With the United States” poll, Gallup found that, in general, 77% of Americans who were polled said they are dissatisfied with the way things are going. That’s compared to 20% who are satisfied and 3% who had no opinion.
In its “direction of the country” polling, RealClear finds that 51.6% feel the country is on the wrong track while 42% say the country is on the right track.
Read more:
Ipsos/Reuters poll released the night of Trump’s address to Congress: https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/three-five-americans-say-cost-living-going-wrong-direction
Gallup’s “Satisfaction With the United States” polling: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1669/general-mood-country.aspx
RealClear “Direction of the Country” polling: https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/state-of-the-union/direction-of-country
Claim: “Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119.”
Get the Facts: The databases may list those people, but that does not mean they are getting paid benefits, as Trump implied.
Social Security’s acting administrator, Lee Dudek, said last month: “The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record. These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits.”
Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system, which is based on the COBOL programming language and has a lack of date type. This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birthdates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago.
Read more:
Tens of millions of dead people are not receiving Social Security payments, despite claims: https://apnews.com/article/social-security-payments-deceased-false-claims-doge-ed2885f5769f368853ac3615b4852cf7
Claim: “We ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto workers and companies from economic destruction.”
Get the Facts: There was no federal mandate to force the purchase of EVs, as Trump has falsely claimed many times before.
Biden had set up a non-binding goal that EVs make up half of new cars sold by 2030. Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office revoking that goal.
Biden’s policies tightened restrictions on pollution from gas-powered cars and trucks in an effort to encourage Americans to buy EVs and car companies to shift from gas-powered vehicles to electric cars.
Read more: What’s next for EVs as Trump moves to revoke Biden-era incentives?: https://apnews.com/article/climate-trump-electric-vehicles-pollution-standards-ae3a35faa376630e494765175aee2c28
Claim: “I am pleased to report that in January, the U.S. Army had its single best recruiting month in 15 years.
Get the Facts: Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Army’s recruiting turnaround is tied to his time in office.
In fact, according to Army data, recruiting numbers have been increasing steadily over the past year, with the highest total coming in August 2024 — before the November election. Army officials closely track recruiting numbers.
A significant driver of the recruiting success was the Army’s decision to launch the Future Soldier Prep Course at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in August 2022. That program gives lower-performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards and move on to basic training.
Read more:
Recruitment Rises 12.5% Despite Ongoing Challenges: https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3953052/recruitment-rises-125-despite-ongoing-challenges/
Army said in October 2025 that it was exceeding Fiscal Year 2024 active duty recruiting goals: https://www.army.mil/article/280028/army_exceeds_fy_2024_active_duty_recruiting_goals
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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