Alert archive / North Carolina / Tornado Watches in 1998

Tornado Watch 304

May 7, 199834 counties in North Carolina; 10 counties in Tennessee

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 7, 1998, 5:30 PM EDT for 34 counties in North Carolina; 10 counties in Tennessee. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 7, 1998, 5:30 PM EDT (21:30 UTC)
Expired: May 7, 1998, 11:00 PM EDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 44 counties

Alexander County, NC, Alleghany County, NC, Ashe County, NC, Avery County, NC, Buncombe County, NC, Burke County, NC, Cabarrus County, NC, Caldwell County, NC, Catawba County, NC, Cleveland County, NC, Davidson County, NC, Davie County, NC, Forsyth County, NC, Gaston County, NC, Haywood County, NC, Henderson County, NC, Iredell County, NC, Jackson County, NC, Lincoln County, NC, Madison County, NC, McDowell County, NC, Mecklenburg County, NC, Mitchell County, NC, Polk County, NC, Rowan County, NC, Rutherford County, NC, Stanly County, NC, Stokes County, NC, Surry County, NC, Transylvania County, NC, Watauga County, NC, Wilkes County, NC, Yadkin County, NC, Yancey County, NC, Carter County, TN, Cocke County, TN, Greene County, TN, Hamblen County, TN, Hancock County, TN, Hawkins County, TN, Johnson County, TN, Sullivan County, TN, Unicoi County, TN, Washington County, TN

Warnings issued inside it

33 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 7, 5:33 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Iredell	47 min
May 7, 5:40 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	McDowell	45 min
May 7, 5:51 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Caldwell	49 min
May 7, 5:56 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Davie	34 min
May 7, 6:09 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Alexander	46 min
May 7, 6:11 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Haywood	49 min
May 7, 6:22 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Burke	48 min
May 7, 6:22 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Cocke, Sevier	33 min
May 7, 6:26 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Iredell	49 min
May 7, 6:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Forsyth	35 min
May 7, 6:34 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Lincoln	46 min
May 7, 6:41 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	RAH	Davidson, Forsyth	34 min
May 7, 6:50 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Buncombe	60 min
May 7, 7:01 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Haywood	64 min
May 7, 7:03 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Greene, Hamblen	47 min
May 7, 7:06 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Rowan	64 min
May 7, 7:10 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Stokes	20 min
May 7, 7:11 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	McDowell	64 min
May 7, 7:19 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	RAH	Davidson	16 min
May 7, 7:27 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Iredell, Mecklenburg	33 min
May 7, 7:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Sullivan, Washington	34 min
May 7, 7:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Cocke, Jefferson	50 min
May 7, 7:54 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Cabarrus	46 min
May 7, 8:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Johnson	33 min
May 7, 8:10 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Rowan	50 min
May 7, 8:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Greene	49 min
May 7, 8:46 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Washington	34 min
May 7, 9:01 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Montgomery, Stanly	34 min
May 7, 9:02 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Carter	33 min
May 7, 9:24 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Johnson, Sullivan	36 min
May 7, 9:42 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Ashe	48 min
May 7, 10:27 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	MRX	Cocke, Sevier	33 min
May 7, 10:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Avery	34 min

The nearest sounding before it

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), launched 12:00Z, 9.5 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.

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: 49 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -28 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 523 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 31 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 53 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: -0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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
May 7, 11:30 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Anson, Union	5 hr
May 7, 2:30 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Swain	7 hr
May 7, 5:00 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Union	6 hr
May 7, 7:00 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Alamance, Anson, Caswell, Chatham, Cumberland, Duplin and 24 more	5 hr
May 6, 11:15 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Benton, Carroll, Chester, Crockett, Decatur, Dyer and 20 more	6 hr
May 7, 4:30 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bedford, Benton, Cannon, Cheatham, Chester, Coffee and 35 more	6 hr

Nearby

Tornado Watches in North Carolina, 1998 Tornado Watches in Tennessee, 1998 Every 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.