Alert archive / North Carolina / Tornado Warnings in 1996

Tornado Warning 22, NWS Raleigh, NC

September 16, 1996Wayne County, North Carolina

NWS Raleigh, NC issued this tornado warning at Sep 16, 1996, 11:23 PM EDT for Wayne County, North Carolina. It was in force for 37 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 16, 1996, 11:23 PM EDT (03:23 UTC)
Expired: Sep 17, 1996, 12:00 AM EDT
In force: 37 min
Issued by: NWS Raleigh, NC
Area: Whole counties

County Wayne County, NC

The radar

The Raleigh/Durham radar (KRAX), 55 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 03:27 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 00:00Z, 3.4 hours before the alert went out and 121 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: 266 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -4 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 802 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 178 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 250 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.1
Supercell composite: 1.7

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KRDU 170327
TORRDU
NCC191-170400-
 
BULLETIN - EBS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RALEIGH/DURHAM NC
1123 PM EDT MON SEP 16 1996
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RALEIGH/DURHAM HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL MIDNIGHT EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN EAST CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA
 
   ...SOUTHERN WAYNE COUNTY
 
AT 1120 PM...NWS DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WITH A
POSSIBLE TORNADO MOVING INTO SOUTHERN WAYNE COUNTY...ABOUT 5 MILES
SOUTHEAST OF MOUNT OLIVE. THE STORM WAS MOVING NORTHEAST AT 30 MPH.
 
TORNADOES AT NIGHT CAN BE ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS. NOISE LIKE A
ROARING TRAIN MAY BE YOUR ONLY CLUE OF AN APPROACHING TORNADO. GO
TO A STURDY SHELTER NOW, IN THE CENTER OF THE LOWEST LEVEL, AWAY
FROM WINDOWS AND OUTSIDE WALLS.  IF DAMAGE OCCURS, AVOID WALKING
AROUND IN THE DARK. DOWNED POWER LINES AND DEBRIS CAN INJURE YOU.
 
DELGADO

The office that day

Everything else NWS Raleigh, NC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Sep 16, 8:32 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Cumberland	28 min
Sep 16, 9:12 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Sampson	33 min
Sep 16, 10:35 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Sampson	25 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.