Alert archive / North Carolina / Tornado Warnings in 1998

Tornado Warning 18, NWS Wilmington, NC

June 13, 1998Bladen County, North Carolina

NWS Wilmington, NC issued this tornado warning at Jun 13, 1998, 3:37 PM EDT for Bladen County, North Carolina. It was in force for 33 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: Jun 13, 1998, 3:37 PM EDT (19:37 UTC)
Expired: Jun 13, 1998, 4:10 PM EDT
In force: 33 min
Issued by: NWS Wilmington, NC
Area: Whole counties

County Bladen County, NC

The radar

The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 71 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:37 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
Jun 13, 4:00 PM EDT	Thunderstorm Wind 65	White Lake, NC
Jun 13, 4:15 PM EDT	Tornado F1	Kelly, NC

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
Jun 13, 3:00 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	7 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Newport, NC (KMHX), launched 12:00Z, 7.6 hours before the alert went out and 155 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: 1887 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -49 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1127 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 97 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.6
Supercell composite: 1.8

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KILM 131937 RRA
TORILM
NCC017-132010-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON NC
337 PM EDT SAT JUN 13 1998

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN WILMINGTON NC HAS ISSUED A...

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  BLADEN COUNTY IN SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA

* UNTIL 410 PM EDT

* AT 335 PM EDT... DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A DEVELOPING TORNADO 27
  MILES EAST OF LUMBERTON OR 5 MILES NORTHWEST OF WHITE LAKE MOVING
  SOUTHEAST AT 35 MPH.

* THE TORNADO WILL BE IN THE VICINITY OF...
        WHITE LAKE              BY 340 PM EDT
        BAY TREE LAKE           BY 345 PM EDT
        LAGOON                  BY 355 PM EDT

IF YOU ARE IN THE PATH OF A TORNADO...GO TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE
LOWEST FLOOR OF A BUILDING. AVOID WINDOWS. IF CAUGHT OUTSIDE...LAY
DOWN IN A DITCH AND COVER YOUR HEAD WITH YOUR HANDS.

HEWITT/IRELAND

The office that day

Everything else NWS Wilmington, NC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jun 13, 2:58 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Bladen, Robeson	42 min
Jun 13, 4:01 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Pender	64 min
Jun 13, 4:09 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILM	Bladen	36 min
Jun 13, 4:16 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILM	Pender	34 min
Jun 13, 4:29 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILM	Brunswick, Columbus	36 min
Jun 13, 4:36 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILM	New Hanover	34 min
Jun 13, 4:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Bladen	35 min
Jun 13, 5:06 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Brunswick, New Hanover	34 min
Jun 13, 5:11 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Columbus	34 min
Jun 13, 5:25 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILM	New Hanover	35 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in North 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.