Alert archive / North Carolina / Flash Flood Warnings in 2003

Flash Flood Warning 71, NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC

July 13, 2003Union County, North Carolina

NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC issued this flash flood warning at Jul 13, 2003, 1:46 PM EDT for Union 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 13, 2003, 1:46 PM EDT (17:46 UTC)
Expired: Jul 13, 2003, 4:45 PM EDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
Area: Whole counties

County Union County, NC

The radar

The Columbia radar (KCAE), 128 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:49 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 12:00Z, 5.8 hours before the alert went out and 134 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: 160 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -142 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1169 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 35 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 69 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
WGUS52 KGSP 131745
FFWGSP
NCC179-132045-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
146 PM EDT SUN JUL 13 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  SOUTHEASTERN UNION COUNTY IN THE PIEDMONT OF NORTH CAROLINA

* UNTIL 445 PM EDT

* AT 136 PM EDT...WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED VERY HEAVY 
RAIN MOVING EAST AND OUT OF UNION COUNTY. 

* VERY HEAVY RAIN FROM EARLY THIS AFTERNOON WILL CONTINUE TO RUNOFF 
INTO STREAMS AND CREEKS IN SOUTHEAST UNION COUNTY...CAUSING WATER 
LEVELS TO RISE. ADDITIONAL THUNDERSTORMS REMAIN POSSIBLE THIS 
AFTERNOON. HIGHWAY 601 SOUTH IN SOUTHEAST UNION COUNTY WAS ALREADY 
REPORTED UNDER WATER DUE TO DRAINAGE PROBLEMS.

DO NOT DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE 
ROADWAY. THE WATER DEPTH MAY BE TOO GREAT TO ALLOW YOUR CAR TO CROSS 
SAFELY. VEHICLES CAUGHT IN RISING WATER SHOULD BE ABANDONED QUICKLY. 
MOVE TO HIGHER GROUND. EVEN MODERN SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES CANNOT BE 
SAFELY DRIVEN THROUGH FLOOD WATERS.

$$
07

1 follow-up statement

000 
WGUS72 KGSP 131918
FFSGSP
NCC179-132045-

FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
315 PM EDT SUN JUL 13 2003

...A FLASH FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES UNTIL 445 PM EDT FOR SOUTHEAST 
UNION COUNTY IN NORTH CAROLINA...

RUNOFF FROM EARLIER RAINFALL WILL CAUSE STREAMS AND CREEKS IN 
SOUTHEAST UNION COUNTY TO CONTINUE TO RISE. ADDITIONAL SHOWERS AND 
THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE INTO THE AREA FROM THE SOUTHWEST...CAUSING 
ADDITIONAL RUNOFF...AND RISES IN WATER LEVELS.

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.

$$
07

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, 11:00 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	Cleveland, Lincoln	3 hr
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, 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.