Alert archive / North Carolina / Flash Flood Warnings in 2003

Flash Flood Warning 69, NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC

July 12, 2003Cleveland County, Lincoln County, North Carolina

NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC issued this flash flood warning at Jul 12, 2003, 11:00 PM EDT for Cleveland County, Lincoln 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: Jul 12, 2003, 11:00 PM EDT (03:00 UTC)
Expired: Jul 13, 2003, 2:00 AM EDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
Area: Whole counties

Counties Cleveland County, NC, Lincoln County, NC

The radar

The Greer radar (KGSP), 96 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 03:03 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.

The nearest sounding before it

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), launched 00:00Z, 3.0 hours before the alert went out and 154 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: 293 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -7 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1730 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 54 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.2

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
WGUS52 KGSP 130301
FFWGSP
NCC045-109-130600-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
1100 PM EDT SAT JUL 12 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  CLEVELAND COUNTY IN THE PIEDMONT OF NORTH CAROLINA
  LINCOLN COUNTY IN THE PIEDMONT OF NORTH CAROLINA

* UNTIL 200 AM EDT

* AT 1048 PM EDT...WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED 
TORRENTIAL RAIN FALLING ACROSS MUCH OF LINCOLN AND CLEVELAND 
COUNTIES. RADAR ESTIMATES THAT 3 TO 4 INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN 
ACROSS WESTERN LINCOLN COUNTY AND NORTHERN CLEVELAND COUNTY OVER THE 
PAST TWO HOURS. STRONG THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE TO AFFECT THIS 
AREA THROUGH MIDNIGHT...WITH SEVERAL MORE INCHES OF RAIN POSSIBLE.

* THROUGH 1055 PM EDT...THE HEAVIEST RAIN HAD FALLEN ACROSS THE 
ROCKDAM...HOWARDS AND INDIAN CREEK BASINS IN LINCOLN COUNTY. WITH 
TORRENTIAL RAIN FALLING ACROSS MUCH OF BOTH COUNTIES...FLASH 
FLOODING COULD QUICKLY DEVELOP NEARLY ANYWHERE.

BE ESPECIALLY CAUTIOUS AT NIGHT WHEN IT IS HARDER TO RECOGNIZE THE 
DANGERS OF FLOODS AND FLASH FLOODS. IF FLASH FLOODING IS OBSERVED ACT
QUICKLY. MOVE UP TO HIGHER GROUND TO ESCAPE FLOOD WATERS. DO NOT STAY
IN AREAS SUBJECT TO FLOODING WHEN WATER BEGINS RISING.

$$
MCAVOY

1 follow-up statement

000 
WGUS72 KGSP 130441
FFSGSP
NCC045-109-130600-

FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
1241 AM EDT SUN JUL 13 2003

...A FLASH FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES UNTIL 200 AM EDT FOR CLEVELAND AND
LINCOLN COUNTIES...

AT 1240 AM...WEATHER RADAR SHOWED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS 
CONTINUING ACROSS MOST OF LINCOLN COUNTY...AND ACROSS THE NORTHERN 
HALF OF CLEVELAND COUNTY. THE STORMS WERE MOVING TO THE EAST...AND 
WERE SHOWING A SLOW WEAKENING TREND. HOWEVER...AS MUCH AS 4 TO 6 
INCHES OF RAIN HAS FALLEN IN THE WARNING AREA SINCE SATURDAY 
EVENING. AN OBSERVER AT CASAR RECEIVED 5.5 INCHES OF RAIN SINCE 8 PM.

NO FLOODING HAD BEEN RECORDED IN LINCOLN COUNTY...BUT STREAMS AND 
CREEKS WERE ELEVATED. IN CLEVELAND COUNTY...AN EVACUATION WAS IN 
PROGRESS WHERE WARDS CREEK APPROACHES MORIAH SCHOOL ROAD. OTHER 
STREAM AND CREEK FLOODING IS LIKELY THROUGH THE WARNING 
TIME...ESPECIALLY ALONG BRADLEY CREEK.

DO NOT BECOME A FATALITY DO NOT CROSS FLOODED ROADS...THE ROAD COULD
BE WASHED OUT FROM THE FLOW OF THE WATER...AND YOUR CAR COULD BE
SWEPT AWAY BY THE SWIFTLY MOVING WATER.

$$

BURRUS

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 12, 8:30 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Cleveland	45 min
Jul 12, 8:36 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Rutherford	39 min
Jul 12, 8:48 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Gaston	42 min
Jul 12, 9:43 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	McDowell	2 hr
Jul 12, 9:44 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Gaston	46 min
Jul 12, 9:55 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	McDowell, Rutherford	65 min
Jul 12, 10:02 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Mecklenburg	58 min
Jul 12, 10:16 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Lincoln	59 min
Jul 12, 10:27 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	Rutherford	3 hr
Jul 12, 10:57 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Cleveland	48 min
Jul 12, 11:05 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Gaston	40 min
Jul 12, 11:35 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Mecklenburg	40 min
Jul 13, 12:01 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Burke	44 min
Jul 13, 1:35 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	Union	3 hr
Jul 13, 1:46 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	Union	3 hr
Jul 13, 3:43 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Burke, Caldwell	47 min
Jul 13, 4:44 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	Union	3 hr
Jul 13, 5:14 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	Burke	3 hr
Jul 13, 5:19 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Mecklenburg, Union	56 min
Jul 13, 5:28 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	Buncombe	3 hr
Jul 13, 7:57 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Graham	48 min

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in North Carolina, 2003 Every flash flood warning in 2003

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.