Alert archive / North Carolina / Flash Flood Warnings in 1999

Flash Flood Warning 16, NWS Wilmington, NC

September 15, 1999New Hanover County, North Carolina

NWS Wilmington, NC issued this flash flood warning at Sep 15, 1999, 4:27 AM EDT for New Hanover County, North Carolina. It was in force for 3 hr. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The counties it named.

The facts

Issued: Sep 15, 1999, 4:27 AM EDT (08:27 UTC)
Expired: Sep 15, 1999, 7:25 AM EDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Wilmington, NC
Area: Whole counties

County New Hanover County, NC

The nearest sounding before it

Newport, NC (KMHX), launched 00:00Z, 8.5 hours before the alert went out and 112 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: 547 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -29 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 934 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 38 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 27 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.1
Supercell composite: 0.8

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
TTAA00 KILM 150828
FFWILM
NCC129-151125-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON NC
427 AM EDT WED SEP 15 1999

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

* FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  NEW HANOVER COUNTY IN SOUTHEASTERN NORTH CAROLINA

* UNTIL 725 AM EDT

* AT 320 AM...HEAVY RAINS FROM THE OCEAN WERE MOVING INLAND
AND INCREASING ACCUMULATIONS TO NEAR 5 INCHES IN SOME AREAS.
THIS HAS CAUSED INCREASING PONDING AND LOCALIZED FLOODING
ACROSS MUCH OF COUNTY. ADDITIONAL ACCUMULATIONS WILL LIKELY
BE 2 TO 3 INCHES...ESPECIALLY IN THE NORTHERN PART OF THE COUNTY.

MOST FLASH FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR IN AUTOMOBILES. LOW-LYING AREAS MAY BE
COVERED BY FLOODWATERS. BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS
HARDER TO RECOGNIZE THE DANGERS OF FLASH FLOODING.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this flash flood warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Wilmington, NC wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Sep 15, 2:48 AM EDT, 1 hour 39 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 15, 2:48 AM EDT, 1 hour 39 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WILMINGTON NC
248 AM EDT WED SEP 15 1999

FOLLOWING LATEST NHC GUIDANCE PACKAGE SUSTAINED 40 MPH WINDS MOVE
INTO EXTREME SOUTHERN SECTIONS OF THE FA THIS AFTN WITH HURRICANE
FORCE WIND POSSIBLE BY MIDNIGHT. GETTING CLOSE TO THE 12 HOUR LIMIT
FOR RAISING WARNING SO WILL HAVE TO WAIT FOR 5 AM PACKAGE TO BASE
DECISION ON. WILL MAINTAIN HIGH WIND WATCH FOR THE REST OF THE
INLAND AREAS BUT MAY HAVE TO MAKE SOME TIMING ADJUSTMENTS PUSHING
IT BACK TO TON AND THU. BASED ON LATEST DAY1 QPF FROM HPC ENTIRE
AREA COULD STILL SEE RAINFALL AMOUNTS OVER 5 INCHES SO NO CHANGES
PLANNED TO FFA. OTHERWISE...NO DRASTIC CHANGES TO CURRENT FCST
PLANNED.

CWF: CURRENT FCST LOOKS A LITTLE SLOW BASED ON TRACK GUIDANCE FOR
BRINGING WIND SPEEDS UP TODAY AND TON AND DOWN FOR THU. WILL
INDICATE JUST BELOW 50 KT FOR SC WATERS TODAY WITH ENTIRE AREA
SEEING HURRICANE FORCE TON. AS STORM PICKS UP SPEED THU SPEEDS FCST
TO DROP OFF QUICKLY.

PRELIM CCF
ILM 079/072 076/062 082 +++
FLO 077/069 078/064 080 988
MYR 078/071 077/066 081 ++9

.ILM...HURRICANE WARNING SURF CITY NC TO SOUTH SANTEE RIVER SC
       INLAND HIGH WIND WATCH TODAY THROUGH THU NCZ087-096-099-
       SCZ017-023-024-032-033-039
       FLOOD WATCH TODAY THROUGH THU NCZ087-096-099-SCZ017-023-
       024-032-039.

IRELAND

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Sep 15, 7:25 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILM	Pender	20 min
Sep 15, 8:23 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	ILM	Brunswick, New Hanover, Pender	6 hr
Sep 15, 10:16 AM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILM	Brunswick, New Hanover	29 min
Sep 15, 2:35 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	ILM	Brunswick, New Hanover, Pender	5 hr
Sep 15, 2:35 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	ILM	Bladen, Columbus	5 hr
Sep 15, 2:42 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILM	Brunswick, New Hanover	33 min
Sep 15, 3:07 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILM	New Hanover	33 min
Sep 15, 3:23 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	ILM	Brunswick, Columbus	22 min
Sep 15, 3:23 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	ILM	Brunswick	22 min
Sep 15, 7:45 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	ILM	Columbus, Robeson	6 hr
Sep 15, 7:45 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	ILM	Bladen, Brunswick, New Hanover, Pender	6 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in North Carolina, 1999 Every flash flood warning in 1999

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.