Alert archive / North Carolina / Tornado Warnings in 1989

Tornado Warning 15, NWS Blacksburg, VA

May 6, 1989Rockingham County, North Carolina

NWS Blacksburg, VA issued this tornado warning at May 6, 1989, 1:47 PM EDT for Rockingham County, North Carolina. It was in force for 43 min.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued
May 6, 1989, 1:47 PM EDT (17:47 UTC)
Expired
May 6, 1989, 2:30 PM EDT
In force
43 min
Issued by
NWS Blacksburg, VA
Area
Whole counties

County Rockingham County, NC

The radar

The WSR-88D network and its archive begin in 1991, so there is no radar volume for this alert.

The nearest sounding before it

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), launched 12:00Z, 5.8 hours before the alert went out and 37 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 12:00Z on 1989-05-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel. CAPE 0 joules per kilogram.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.
HodographHodograph, Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC at 12:00Z on 1989-05-06The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 50 square meters per square second.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL
NaN m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
65 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
50 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
48 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
TTAA00 KGSO 061747
TORGSO
NCC157-061830-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED/EBS ACTIVATION REQUESTED 
TORNADO WARNING 
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENSBORO NC
147 PM EDT SAT MAY 6 1989

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HAS ISSUED A TORNADO WARNING 
EFFECTIVE UNTIL 230 PM EDT FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTY

   IN THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
      ROCKINGHAM

AT 145 PM A TORNADO WAS REPORTED BY THE HIGHWAY PATROL IN WESTERN
ROCKINGHAM COUNTY.

THIS IS A DAuNGEROUS STORM.  TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY.

 RBN

The office that day

Everything else NWS Blacksburg, VA issued on the same UTC day.

IssuedProductOfficeCountiesLasted
May 5, 8:05 PM EDTTornado WarningRNKDavie, Iredell, Rowan55 min
May 5, 8:05 PM EDTTornado WarningRNKAlexander, Wilkes55 min
May 5, 8:16 PM EDTTornado WarningRNKYadkin29 min
May 5, 8:34 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNKDavidson, Forsyth26 min
May 5, 8:45 PM EDTTornado WarningRNKForsyth, Stokes30 min
May 5, 8:57 PM EDTTornado WarningRNKDavidson, Guilford, Randolph33 min
May 5, 8:57 PM EDTTornado WarningRNKRockingham33 min
May 5, 9:37 PM EDTTornado WarningRNKAlamance, Guilford, Randolph53 min
May 5, 9:37 PM EDTTornado WarningRNKCaswell, Rockingham53 min
May 6, 1:30 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNKRandolph45 min
May 6, 1:39 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNKGuilford36 min
May 6, 1:45 PM EDTTornado WarningRNKDavidson, Davie, Forsyth, Rowan45 min
May 6, 2:04 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNKAlamance, Caswell26 min
May 6, 2:28 PM EDTSevere Thunderstorm WarningRNKAlamance, Caswell32 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in North Carolina, 1989Every tornado warning in 1989Tornadoes in 1989

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive.