Alert archive / South Carolina / Tornado Warnings in 1997

Tornado Warning 5, NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC

April 28, 1997Laurens County, South Carolina

NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC issued this tornado warning at Apr 28, 1997, 7:48 PM EDT for Laurens County, South Carolina. It was in force for 27 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: Apr 28, 1997, 7:48 PM EDT (23:48 UTC)
Expired: Apr 28, 1997, 8:15 PM EDT
In force: 27 min
Issued by: NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
Area: Whole counties

County Laurens County, SC

The radar

The Greer radar (KGSP), 49 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:49 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
Apr 28, 8:00 PM EDT	Thunderstorm Wind 50	Clinton, 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
Apr 28, 5:15 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 12:00Z, 11.8 hours before the alert went out and 256 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: 319 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -4 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 489 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 81 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 120 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.2
Supercell composite: 1.6

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

201 
WFUS1 KGSP 282351 RRA
TORGSP
SCC059-290015-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING...CORRECTION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE SPARTANBURG SC
748 PM EDT MON APR 28 1997
    CORRECTION FOR WARNING TYPE
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GREENVILLE SPARTANBURG HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  815 PM EDT
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...

IN  SOUTH CAROLINA

   ...NORTHERN LAURENS COUNTY

AT 745 PM...FIRE DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REPORTED A TORNADO WAS ON THE
GROUND AND MOVING NORTHEAST ALONG HIGHWAY 252 AT 30 MPH. THE TORNADO
WILL APOPROACH THE TOWNS OF ORA AND WHITMIRE BY 815 PM.

THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM...TAKE COVER IMMEDIATELY IF YOU ARE IN
ITS PATH. LARGE SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAN CAUSE AS MUCH DAMAGE AS
SMALL TORNADOES.

BURRUS

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Apr 28, 5:48 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Oconee	42 min
Apr 28, 5:54 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Anderson, Pickens	36 min
Apr 28, 6:28 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Abbeville	47 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in South Carolina, 1997 Every tornado warning in 1997 Tornadoes 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.