A Tornado Watch has been issued for much of South Carolina's Midlands region on Saturday as Republicans there go to the polls to choose their preferred candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.
The watch, issued at 12:30 p.m. by the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., is in effect until 8 p.m. for Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun, Edgefield, Fairfield, Hampton, Lexington, McCormick, Newberry, Orangeburg, Richland, and Saluda counties. Lexington and Richland counties comprise the metropolitan area of Columbia, the state capital.
A line of thunderstorms crossing the state could produce tornadoes, hail to 1 inch in diameter, wind gusts to 70 miles per hour and dangerous lightning, the Storm Prediction Center warned.
The polls close at 7 p.m.
