Alert archive / North Carolina / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 116, NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC

July 4, 1997Swain County, North Carolina

NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jul 4, 1997, 7:00 PM EDT for Swain County, North Carolina. It was in force for 60 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: Jul 4, 1997, 7:00 PM EDT (23:00 UTC)
Expired: Jul 4, 1997, 8:00 PM EDT
In force: 60 min
Issued by: NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
Area: Whole counties

County Swain County, NC

The radar

The Knoxville radar (KMRX), 76 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:03 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
Jul 4, 7:30 PM EDT	Thunderstorm Wind 50	Bryson City, NC	One person was injured when a tree fell on a camper. The Smoky Mountain Railroad train became trapped when trees fell across the tracks ahead of and behind it. The train and its passengers were not found until 10 pm EST.

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
Jul 4, 5:00 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), launched 12:00Z, 11.0 hours before the alert went out and 253 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: 547 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -412 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1429 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -52 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

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 Jul 4, 1:54 PM EDT, 5 hours 6 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 4, 1:54 PM EDT, 5 hours 6 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
154 PM EDT FRI JUL 4 1997

CAE/RAH/FFC: FAIR OR MOSTLY CLEAR TONIGHT...MOSTLY SUNNY SATURDAY
              WITH 20% POPS LATE AFTERNOON-EVENING.
RAH/FFC: PROBABLY WILL NOT NEED POPS THIS EVENING...
          MOSTLY SUNNY SUNDAY.

LONGWAVE PATTERN WILL AMPLIFY SOME THIS PERIOD AS SUBTROPICAL
RIDGE GETS DISPLACED ALLOWING HEIGHTS TO LOWER A BIT ACROSS THE
EASTERN U.S.  12Z UA ANALYSES SHOWED S/WV ACROSS THE SOUTHERN
PLAINS & PROGS SEEM TO SHEAR THIS FEATURE AS IT HEADS EAST THROUGH
TONIGHT.  HENCE...NOT MUCH FORCING ON THE SYNOPTIC SCALE TO FOCUS
ON THRU SUNDAY FOR THE FA AS VVS GET STRUNG OUT JUST TO OUR NW.

WEAK SURFACE RIDGING WILL KEEP THE OPPRESSIVE HEAT & RH LEVELS
OF LATE TO OUR SOUTH THIS WEEKEND...RETURNING US BACK TO NEAR
SEASONABLE NORMS.  BOTH ETA/NGM GRIDDED T/H X-SXNS SHOW A NARROW
BAND OF MOISTURE RETURN AT 850 MB TOMORROW & COMBINED WITH SOME
COOLING ALOFT...STILL MAY BE ABLE TO GET 20% CVRG LATE AFTERNOON/
EVENING.  QUESTIONABLE HOW MUCH RIDGING IN THE LOW-LVLS WILL BE
ABLE TO SUPPRESS DIRUNAL CONVECTION SUNDAY...BUT SHOULD BE EVEN
LESS RH TO WORK WITH...SO FEEL THAT THE SMART PLAY WOULD BE TO
KEEP GOING DRY FCSTS FOR SUNDAY.

GSP  67/89/64/87  0220
AVL  61/82/59/81  2220
CLT  71/90/69/87  0220

CSH

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 4, 6:52 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Madison	53 min
Jul 4, 7:09 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Avery, Mitchell	66 min
Jul 4, 7:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Graham	60 min
Jul 4, 7:17 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Buncombe	43 min
Jul 4, 7:23 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Yancey	37 min
Jul 4, 7:40 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Jackson, Macon	65 min
Jul 4, 7:44 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	McDowell	61 min
Jul 4, 7:59 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Caldwell	46 min
Jul 3, 8:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Laurens	53 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in North 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.