Alert archive / South Carolina / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 39, NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC

May 7, 1998Greenwood County, South Carolina

NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC issued this tornado warning at May 7, 1998, 6:23 PM EDT for Greenwood County, South Carolina. It was in force for 47 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 7, 1998, 6:23 PM EDT (22:23 UTC)
Expired: May 7, 1998, 7:10 PM EDT
In force: 47 min
Issued by: NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
Area: Whole counties

County Greenwood County, SC

The radar

The Greer radar (KGSP), 82 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:26 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 7, 6:42 PM EDT	Tornado F1	Hodges, SC	A weak tornado touched down near the Abbeville county line and moved east-southeast damaging some buildings, lifting a pick-up truck off the ground and lodging it in a tree, and killing goats and pigs. Hundreds of trees were downed in the Creekside subdivision
May 7, 6:42 PM EDT	Hail 2.75	Hodges, 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
May 7, 5:00 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), launched 12:00Z, 10.4 hours before the alert went out and 236 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: 650 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -129 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 521 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 68 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 193 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 5 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: -3.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

980 
WFUS1 KGSP 072224 RRA
TORGSP
SCC047-072310-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
623 PM EDT THU MAY 7 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC HAS
ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  GREENWOOD COUNTY IN SOUTH CAROLINA

* UNTIL 710 PM EDT

* AT 624 PM... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO
  NEAR DUE WEST IN ABBEVILLE COUNTY... MOVING EAST-SOUTHEAST AT 30
  MPH.

* THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR...
  WARE SHOALS AND HODGES BETWEEN 635 PM AND 640 PM

IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...THE SAFEST PLACE IN A HOME OR
BUSINESS IS AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR POSSIBLE. STAY AWAY
FROM DOORS AND WINDOWS.
KAJ

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 7, 4:56 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Oconee	59 min
May 7, 5:11 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Oconee	34 min
May 7, 5:32 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Anderson	63 min
May 7, 6:14 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Abbeville, Anderson	46 min
May 7, 6:40 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Oconee	50 min
May 7, 7:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Oconee	49 min
May 7, 7:45 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Anderson	50 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in South Carolina, 1998 Every tornado warning in 1998 Tornadoes 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.