Alert archive / North Carolina / Tornado Warnings in 1996

Tornado Warning 22, NWS Newport/Morehead City, NC

September 17, 1996Carteret County, North Carolina

NWS Newport/Morehead City, NC issued this tornado warning at Sep 17, 1996, 8:07 AM EDT for Carteret County, North Carolina. It was in force for 38 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Sep 17, 1996, 8:07 AM EDT (12:07 UTC)
Expired: Sep 17, 1996, 8:45 AM EDT
In force: 38 min
Issued by: NWS Newport/Morehead City, NC
Area: Whole counties

County Carteret County, NC

The radar

The Morehead City radar (KMHX), 33 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 12:06 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.

The nearest sounding before it

Newport, NC (KMHX), launched 12:00Z, 0.1 hours before the alert went out and 33 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: 1950 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 502 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 79 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 175 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.0
Supercell composite: 5.9

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KMHX 171208
TORMHX
NCC031-171245-
 
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEWPORT NC
807 AM EDT TUE SEP 17 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NEWPORT HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  845 AM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN EAST CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA
 
   ...EASTERN CARTERET COUNTY
 
AND THE ADJACENT COASTAL WATERS
 
 
AT 805 AM...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR IN NEWPORT INDICATED A
TORNADO OVER THE LOWER PART OF THE SOUTH RIVER. THE STORM IS MOVING
NORTHEAST AT 30 MPH. THE CELL WILL LIKELY TRAVEL OVER THE SWAMPY AREAS
OF EASTERN CARTERET COUNTY AND AFFECT CEDAR ISLAND BY AROUND 830 AM.
 
THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM SITUATION.  ACT QUICKLY.  IF YOU ARE
IN THE PATH OF THIS TORNADO MOVE TO A SHELTER BELOW GROUND IF
AVAILABLE.  OTHERWISE...GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST
FLOOR POSSIBLE.  AVOID WINDOWS.  ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE HOMES
FOR A REINFORCED BUILDING OR GET INTO A DITCH OR CULVERT.
 
JCI/CG

The office that day

Everything else NWS Newport/Morehead City, NC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Sep 16, 10:42 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Duplin	33 min
Sep 16, 11:46 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Lenoir	29 min
Sep 17, 12:20 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Craven, Pitt	40 min
Sep 17, 12:50 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Beaufort	40 min
Sep 17, 1:26 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	MHX	Lenoir	4 hr
Sep 17, 1:55 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Hyde	50 min
Sep 17, 3:18 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Pitt	42 min
Sep 17, 3:35 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Dare	25 min
Sep 17, 3:41 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	MHX	Martin	34 min
Sep 17, 6:38 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Carteret	52 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in North Carolina, 1996 Every tornado warning in 1996 Tornadoes 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.