Alert archive / Georgia / Tornado Warnings in 1998
Tornado Warning 13, NWS Charleston, SC
NWS Charleston, SC issued this tornado warning at May 8, 1998, 2:08 PM EDT for Chatham County, Georgia. It was in force for 17 min. 2 reports 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
- May 8, 1998, 2:08 PM EDT (18:08 UTC)
- Expired
- May 8, 1998, 2:25 PM EDT
- In force
- 17 min
- Issued by
- NWS Charleston, SC
- Area
- Whole counties
County Chatham County, GA
The radar
The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 76 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:09 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 8, 2:10 PM EDT | Tornado F0 | Savannah, GA | Trees and limbs down and minor damage at local mall. |
| May 8, 2:18 PM EDT | Hail 1.75 | Isle Of Hope, GA |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 8, 1:15 PM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 12:00Z, 6.1 hours before the alert went out and 145 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 7 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -279 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1602 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 61 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 386 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 397 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
173 WFUS1 KCHS 081807 RRA TORCHS GAC051-081825- BULLETIN...EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON SC 208 PM EDT FRI MAY 8 1998 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... SOUTHEASTERN CHATHAM COUNTY IN SOUTHEASTERN GEORGIA * UNTIL 225 PM EDT * AT AT 205 PM EDT... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO 5 MILES WEST OF VERNONBURG... MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 20 MPH. * THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR... VERNONBURG AT 210 PM WASSAW ISLAND AT 220 PM GO TO THE BASEMENT OR A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR JH
The office that day
Everything else NWS Charleston, SC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 8, 2:00 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Chatham | 60 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Georgia, 1998Every tornado warning in 1998Tornadoes in 1998
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.