Alert archive / South Carolina / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 3, NWS Columbia, SC

January 24, 1997Lexington County, South Carolina

NWS Columbia, SC issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jan 24, 1997, 4:04 PM EST for Lexington County, South Carolina. It was in force for 26 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: Jan 24, 1997, 4:04 PM EST (21:04 UTC)
Expired: Jan 24, 1997, 4:30 PM EST
In force: 26 min
Issued by: NWS Columbia, SC
Area: Whole counties

County Lexington County, SC

The radar

The Columbia radar (KCAE), 15 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:07 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
Jan 24, 4:15 PM EST	Hail 0.75	Swansea, SC

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 watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
Jan 24, 4:00 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 12:00Z, 9.1 hours before the alert went out and 162 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: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: No buoyant parcel
Mixed-layer LCL: 1085 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 45 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 128 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 158 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 KCAE 242103 RRA
SVRCAE
SCC063-242130-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COLUMBIA SC
404 PM EST FRI JAN 24 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN COLUMBIA HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  430 PM EST
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN  SOUTH CAROLINA
 
   ...LEXINGTON COUNTY
 
NWS DOPPLER RADAR INDICATES A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS MOVING
THROUGH LEXINGTON COUNTY AT 400 PM EST. THE STRONGEST STORM WAS JUST
WEST OF SWANSEA AT THAT TIME. THIS STORM WILL MOVE THROUGH SWANSEA AND
GASTON BETWEEN 400 PM AND 430 PM.
 
SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS PRODUCE DAMAGING WIND IN EXCESS OF 55
MPH...DESTRUCTIVE HAIL...DEADLY LIGHTNING...AND VERY HEAVY RAIN.
THESE WINDS BLOW DOWN TREES...POWER LINES...AND SEVERELY DAMAGE
MOBILE HOMES.  FOR YOUR PROTECTION MOVE TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE
LOWEST FLOOR.  DON'T DRIVE INTO AREAS WHERE WATER COVERS THE ROAD.

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.

In the hours before

Local storm report, Jan 24, 3:39 PM EST, 25 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COLUMBIA SC
339 PM EST FRI JAN 24 1997

TIME (EST) .....CITY LOCATION....... ST   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           .....COUNTY LOCATION.....
322 PM     2 S OF AIKEN              SC   WIND DAMAGE
01/24/97   AIKEN                          TREES AND POWER LINES
                                          REPORTED DOWN BY AIKEN
                                          COUNTY POLICE

LCV

The office that day

Everything else NWS Columbia, SC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 24, 3:15 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Aiken	45 min
Jan 24, 3:50 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Richland	40 min
Jan 24, 4:12 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Calhoun	48 min
Jan 24, 4:28 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Orangeburg	32 min
Jan 24, 4:34 PM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CAE	Richland	26 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in South Carolina, 1997 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 1997

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.