Alert archive / North Carolina / Tornado Watches in 1998
Tornado Watch 117
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at Mar 20, 1998, 3:00 PM EST for 21 counties in North Carolina; 9 counties in South Carolina. It was in force for 4 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- Mar 20, 1998, 3:00 PM EST (20:00 UTC)
- Expired
- Mar 20, 1998, 7:00 PM EST
- In force
- 4 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
All 30 counties
Bladen County, NC, Brunswick County, NC, Columbus County, NC, Craven County, NC, Cumberland County, NC, Duplin County, NC, Greene County, NC, Harnett County, NC, Hoke County, NC, Johnston County, NC, Jones County, NC, Lenoir County, NC, Nash County, NC, New Hanover County, NC, Onslow County, NC, Pender County, NC, Robeson County, NC, Sampson County, NC, Scotland County, NC, Wayne County, NC, Wilson County, NC, Darlington County, SC, Dillon County, SC, Florence County, SC, Georgetown County, SC, Horry County, SC, Lee County, SC, Marion County, SC, Marlboro County, SC, Williamsburg County, SC
The radar
The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 80 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:00 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.
Warnings issued inside it
3 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 20, 3:51 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAE | Lee | 39 min |
| Mar 20, 6:28 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CAE | Lee | 32 min |
| Mar 20, 6:54 PM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ILM | Darlington, Florence | 51 min |
The nearest sounding before it
Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 12:00Z, 8.0 hours before the alert went out and 197 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
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- No buoyant parcel
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 5217 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 18 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 50 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
The text
The text of this product is not in the archive. The NWS text archive before 2002 is incomplete.
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 20, 12:45 AM EST | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | SPC | Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and 1 more | 5 hr |
| Mar 20, 7:30 AM EST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke and 30 more | 6 hr |
| Mar 20, 1:00 PM EST | Tornado Watch | SPC | Alamance, Anson, Cabarrus, Caswell, Chatham, Cumberland and 29 more | 6 hr |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 1998Tornado Watches in South Carolina, 1998Every tornado watch 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; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.