Alert archive / North Carolina / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 1997

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 1, NWS Newport/Morehead City, NC

January 16, 1997Greene County, North Carolina

NWS Newport/Morehead City, NC issued this severe thunderstorm warning at Jan 16, 1997, 6:13 AM EST for Greene County, North Carolina. It was in force for 47 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: Jan 16, 1997, 6:13 AM EST (11:13 UTC)
Expired: Jan 16, 1997, 7:00 AM EST
In force: 47 min
Issued by: NWS Newport/Morehead City, NC
Area: Whole counties

County Greene County, NC

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 16, 4:45 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	5 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Newport, NC (KMHX), launched 00:00Z, 11.2 hours before the alert went out and 107 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: 708 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 42 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 316 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 274 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 KMHX 161114 RRA
SVRMHX
NCC079-161200-
 
BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEWPORT NC
613 AM EST THU JAN 16 1997
 
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN NEWPORT HAS ISSUED A
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING EFFECTIVE UNTIL  700 AM EST
FOR PEOPLE IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION...
 
IN EAST CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA
 
   ...GREENE COUNTY
 
AT 612 AM...RADAR INDICATED A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ENTERING
WESTERN GREENE COUNTY. THE LINE WAS MOVING EAST AT 35 MPH AND WILL MOVE
JUST NORTH OF THE SNOW HILL VICINITY BY 630 AM.
 
WHEN THUNDERSTORMS ARE OCCURRING...PEOPLE SHOULD SEEK SHELTER IN A
STRONG BUILDING.  AVOID STANDING BY WINDOWS. ONLY USE TELEPHONES
AND ELECTRICAL LAPPLIANCES FOR EMERGENCY PURPOSES UNTIL THE STORM
HAS PASSED.  MOTORISTS SHOULD SLOW DOWN WHEN DRIVING THROUGH HEAVY
RAIN AND BE ALERT FOR 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.

NWS Newport/Morehead City, NC wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at Jan 15, 8:35 PM EST, 9 hours 38 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 15, 8:35 PM EST, 9 hours 38 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEWPORT/MOREHEAD CITY NC
835 PM EST WED JAN 15 1997

RDU: NO CHANGES.

CWF: CURRENT FCST ON TRACK WITH GALES NRN WTRS AND STRONG SCA FOR
SRN WTRS AND SOUNDS.  MID SHIFT WILL HAVE TIME TO ADJUST GALES
FURTHER S IF NEED BE.  WILL BE A BRIEF LULL THU AFTN AFTER PACIFIC
FRONT CROSSES WATERS THEN ANOTHER GALE THU NIGHT-ERLY FRI WITH
STRONG CAA FOLLOWG ARCTIC FRONT.

DISC: TEMPS ACROSS THE E HAVE FALLEN LIKE A ROCK THIS EVENG UNDER PC
SKIES AS WINDS HAVE DECOUPLED...FOR THE MOMENT.  00Z MHX SOUNDG HAD
PLENTY OF WARM AIR JUST OFF THE SFC JUST WAITING TO MIXED DOWN AS
LOV LVL JET CROSSES AREA AFTER MIDNIGHT.  LOOKS LIKE WARM
FRONTOGENESIS OCCURRING FROM SC TO WSTRN TN AND EXTENDING E OVR THE
GULF STREAM AS TEMPS AT DSNL AND FPSN HAVE RISEN TO NEAR 60 DEGREES
AS WINDS COME AROUND TO THE S.

MAIN FCST QUESTION IS WILL THERE BE ENUF MOIST/INSTAB FOR SVR TSTMS
ERLY THU?  00Z MHX SOUNDG WAS VERY DRY AND IT WOULD TAKE
CONSIDERABLE MOISTENING TO GET L.I. BELOW ZERO IN TIME TO INTERACT
WITH VERY FVBRL THERMODYAMICS FCST OVER THE REGION BY 12Z THU.  WILL
BE A CLOSE CALL.  NONETHELESS...WITH AGESTROPHIC CIRCULATION
PRODUCING SIG DIV ALOFT AND LOW LVL JET OF 50-60 KTS STILL THINK
TSTMS A GOOD BET.  CURRENT FCST HANDLES EXPECTED TRENDS WELL.

.MHX...GALE WARNING N OF CAPE LOOKOUT.
       SCA CAPE LOOKOUT S.
       SCA SOUNDS.

JME

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 16, 6:28 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Pitt	32 min
Jan 16, 9:07 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MHX	Dare	23 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive.