Alert archive / South Carolina / Tornado Warnings in 1998
Tornado Warning 31, NWS Charleston, SC
NWS Charleston, SC issued this tornado warning at Sep 3, 1998, 1:49 PM EDT for Dorchester County, South Carolina. It was in force for 46 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
- Sep 3, 1998, 1:49 PM EDT (17:49 UTC)
- Expired
- Sep 3, 1998, 2:35 PM EDT
- In force
- 46 min
- Issued by
- NWS Charleston, SC
- Area
- Whole counties
County Dorchester County, SC
The radar
The Charleston,SC radar (KCLX), 76 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:49 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 3, 2:00 PM EDT | Thunderstorm Wind 50 | Summerville, SC | Numerous trees down. |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 3, 9:45 AM EDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | 7 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 12:00Z, 5.8 hours before the alert went out and 43 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
- 182 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -31 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 528 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 54 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 288 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 433 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
436 WFUS1 KCHS 031747 RRA TORCHS SCC035-031835- BULLETIN...EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CHARLESTON SC 149 PM EDT THU SEP 3 1998 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHARLESTON HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... WESTERN DORCHESTER COUNTY IN SOUTH CAROLINA * UNTIL 235 PM EDT * AT 147 PM EDT... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO NEAR COTTAGEVILLE... MOVING NORTH AT 45 MPH. * THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR... ON HIGHWAY 78 BETWEEN ST. GEORGE AND DORCHESTER BY 2 PM A TORNADO IS ON THE GROUND GO TO THE BASEMENT IF A BASEMENT IS NOT AVAILABLE...GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR SLB/RVT &
The office that day
Everything else NWS Charleston, SC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 3, 6:33 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Jasper | 47 min |
| Sep 3, 6:33 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Beaufort | 47 min |
| Sep 3, 8:16 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | CHS | Beaufort | 49 min |
| Sep 3, 8:40 AM EDT | Tornado Warning | CHS | Colleton | 30 min |
| Sep 3, 10:28 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Charleston | 47 min |
| Sep 3, 11:33 AM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Jasper | 32 min |
| Sep 3, 12:04 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Hampton | 36 min |
| Sep 3, 1:05 PM EDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CHS | Berkeley | 50 min |
| Sep 3, 1:09 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | CHS | Berkeley | 46 min |
| Sep 3, 1:21 PM EDT | Tornado Warning | CHS | Colleton | 49 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in South Carolina, 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.