Alert archive / North Carolina / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1996

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 32, NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC

March 16, 1996Catawba County, Iredell County, North Carolina

NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Mar 16, 1996, 7:03 PM EST for Catawba County, Iredell County, North Carolina. It was in force for 42 min. 1 report came from inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued: Mar 16, 1996, 7:03 PM EST (00:03 UTC)
Expired: Mar 16, 1996, 7:45 PM EST
In force: 42 min
Issued by: NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
Area: Whole counties

Counties Catawba County, NC, Iredell County, NC

The radar

The Greer radar (KGSP), 143 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:05 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
Mar 16, 7:15 PM EST	Hail 0.75	Maiden, NC

NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.

The nearest sounding before it

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 00:00Z, 0.1 hours before the alert went out and 329 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-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

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: 615 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -78 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1054 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 41 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 244 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 308 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.6
Supercell composite: 7.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Mar 16, 1:42 PM EST, 5 hours 21 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Mar 16, 1:42 PM EST, 5 hours 21 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
142 PM EST SAT MAR 16 1996

RAH/CAE/FFC: SEE DISC FOR RECOMMEDATIONS.

DISC: TRW BEGINNING TO FIRE ACROSS NC MTNS AND NE GA. SAT PICS SHOW
VORT MAX ENTERING TN SO TRW WILL CONT TONIGHT. MDLS SIMILAR TONIGHT/SUN
WITH VORT MAXS MOVING THRU AREA WITH DIFFERING AMNTS AND AREAS OF UVV.
MDLS REALLY DIVERGE SUN NITE/MON. ETA/AVN TRACK SFC LOW FARTHER SOUTH
ACROSS SC WHILE NGM TAKES IT NR GSP THEN INTO NC. THIS CAUSES BIG DIFF
TO FCST HIGHS AND PRECIP AMNTS MON. COOLER TEMPS AVN/ETA...HEAVY RAIN
AVN/NGM. TRENDED TOWARD NGM TRACK/FWC POPS AND TEMPS. THINK WITH BIG
JET MAX DIGGING BROAD TROF ACRS CENT US...WINDS ALOFT WILL BACK TO SW
SLOWING FORWARD MOVEMENT AND TRACKING LOW FARTHER NORTH AND WEST.

NC/GA MTNS WILL BE COOLER WITH POSS FLOODING RAIN MON WITH ANY LOW TRACK
DUE TO HIGH RH. WITH NGM...TEMPS SHUD NOT COOL AS MUCH IN UPSTATE...NC
FOOTHILLS/PIEDMONT AND SRN NE GA. HEAVY RAINFALL POSS THERE TOO ALONG
WITH CONT SVR THREAT. OF COURSE ANY DEVIATION IN MOVEMENT OF SYS WILL
CHANGE FCST DRAMATICALLY.
^
AVL 49/62/45/57 7/8/8/8
CLT 54/66/52/62 7/8/8/8
GSP 55/67/51/62 7/8/8/8

RWH

In the hours before

Local storm report, Mar 16, 5:18 PM EST, 1 hour 45 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Local storm report, Mar 16, 5:37 PM EST, 1 hour 26 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Local storm report, Mar 16, 5:38 PM EST, 1 hour 25 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Local storm report, Mar 16, 5:57 PM EST, 1 hour 6 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Local storm report, Mar 16, 6:26 PM EST, 37 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Local storm report, Mar 16, 6:27 PM EST, 36 minutes before

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

The office that day

Everything else NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Mar 16, 10:03 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Catawba, Iredell	42 min
Mar 16, 10:22 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Davie	53 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in North Carolina, 1996 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1996

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.