Alert archive / Georgia / Flash Flood Warnings in 2003

Flash Flood Warning 79, NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC

July 17, 2003Rabun County, Georgia

NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC issued this flash flood warning at Jul 17, 2003, 8:30 PM EDT for Rabun County, Georgia. 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 17, 2003, 8:30 PM EDT (00:30 UTC)
Expired: Jul 17, 2003, 11:30 PM EDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
Area: Whole counties

County Rabun County, GA

The radar

The Greer radar (KGSP), 108 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 00:32 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

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), launched 00:00Z, 0.5 hours before the alert went out and 196 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: 62 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -110 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1840 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -54 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 180033
FFWGSP
GAC241-180330-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
830 PM EDT THU JUL 17 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  RABUN COUNTY IN NORTHEAST GEORGIA

* UNTIL 1130 PM EDT

* AT 827 PM EDT...WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED VERY HEAVY 
RAIN CONTINUING TO FALL OVER NORTHERN RABUN COUNTY. THIS AREA OF 
HEAVY RAINFALL WAS MOVING VERY SLOWLY TO THE SOUTH.

* THE GROUND WILL BECOME QUICKLY SATURATED...AND ADDITIONAL RAINFALL 
WILL RUNOFF INTO STREAMS AND CREEKS...CAUSING WATER LEVELS TO RISE. 
THE NORTHEAST PORTION OF RABUN COUNTY WILL BE THE MOST FLOOD 
PRONE...AS THE GREATEST RAINFALL ACCUMULATIONS HAVE OCCURRED THERE.

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

2 follow-up statements

000 
WGUS72 KGSP 180201
FFSGSP
GAC241-180330-

FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
959 PM EDT THU JUL 17 2003

...A FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1130 PM EDT FOR 
RABUN COUNTY...

RAINFALL HAS DIMINISHED OVER RABUN COUNTY...HOWEVER RUNOFF FROM 
EARLIER RAINFALL WILL CONTINUE TO CAUSE STREAMS AND CREEKS TO RISE.

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

000 
WGUS72 KGSP 180330
FFSGSP
GAC241-180345-

FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
1130 PM EDT THU JUL 17 2003

...THE FLASH FLOOD WARNING WHICH WAS IN EFFECT FOR RABUN COUNTY HAS 
EXPIRED AS OF 1130 PM EDT...

THE HEAVY RAIN HAS ENDED OVER THE WARNED AREA. STREAMS AND CREEKS IN 
THE WARNED AREA HAVE REMAINED IN THEIR BANKS. SOME RUNOFF MAY 
CONTINUE...CAUSING MINOR RISES IN WATER LEVELS.

$$
07

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 Greenville-Spartanburg, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before this flash flood warning went out at Jul 17, 3:10 PM EDT, 5 hours 20 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 17, 3:10 PM EDT, 5 hours 20 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
310 PM EDT THU JUL 17 2003

THE SURFACE TROUGH HAS STAYED LARGELY CONFINED TO PIEDMONT SECTIONS
EAST OF THE CWA TODAY. FORCING HAS THUS BEEN LARGELY LACKING...AND
WARM 700 MB TEMPS CONTINUE TO SUPPLY A WEAK CAP TO THE PROFILES. A
FEW SHOWERS KEEP TRYING TO GET STARTED ON RADAR...AND MODEL
SOUNDINGS CONTINUE TO SUGGEST THAT WE OVERCOME THE CAPPING VERY LATE
THIS AFTERNOON. ANY THUNDERSTORMS THAT DEVELOP SHOULD BE QUITE
STRONG WITH CONSIDERABLE MID LEVEL DRY AIR AND LOW WET BULB ZERO
HEIGHTS. HAVE PENCILED IN ISOLATED COVERAGE FOR THE EVENING
HOURS...AND WILL ASSESS AGAIN AT ISSUANCE TIME.

MODELS AGREE FAIRLY WELL THAT WEAK LEE TROUGH SLIDES WEST TOWARD THE
BLUE RIDGE TOMORROW AS COLD FRONT MOVES STEADILY SOUTH DOWN THE
APPALACHIANS. INSTABILITY SHOULD BUBBLE BACK UP BY LATE DAY...BUT
THE BEST COMBINATION OF DEEPER MOISTURE...LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE WITH
FRONT...AND UPPER SUPPORT ASSOC WITH FALLING UPPER HEIGHTS MAY BE
LATE FRIDAY NIGHT. FRONTAL BAND SLOWLY DISSIPATES THROUGH SATURDAY
BUT WITH ENOUGH CLOUDS AND SCATTERED PRECIP TO HOLD TEMPERATURES
DOWN AT LEAST A CATEGORY OVER FRI MAXES.

PATTERN IS BACK TO DIURNAL TRENDS FOR SUNDAY AND MONDAY BEFORE
SHARPER ERN TROUGH AND FRONT RETURN BY TUE. STRENGTHENING DYNAMICS
AND UPPER FLOW UNDER TROUGH WILL BOOST PRECIP CHANCES AND SEVERE
WEATHER THREAT FOR TUE INTO WED. GFS-ADVERTISED WAVE ALONG FRONT FOR
WED REMAINS SOMEWHAT SUSPICIOUS GIVEN ALL THE CONVECTIVE FEEDBACK
EXHIBITED BY GFS RECENTLY. WILL STILL LEAN TOWARD SLOWER TROUGH
PROGRESSION WITH DRY WEATHER FEATURED FOR THU.

FCSTID =   33
GSP   68  90  69  86 /  20  30  30  30
AND   69  91  70  87 /  20  30  30  30
CLT   68  90  70  86 /  20  30  40  40
HKY   66  88  67  84 /  20  30  40  40
AVL   63  87  64  81 /  20  30  30  40

.GSP...
GA...NONE.
NC...NONE.
SC...NONE.

HG

Hazardous weather outlook, Jul 17, 6:05 AM EDT, 14 hours 25 minutes before

GAZ010-017-018-026-028-029-NCZ033>037-048>059-062>072-082-SCZ001>014-
019-171200-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
605 AM EDT THU JUL 17 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA...
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA...AND EXTREME NORTHEAST GEORGIA.

.DAY ONE...TODAY

SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP AGAIN TODAY...MAINLY
LATE IN THE AFTERNOON AND EARLY IN THE EVENING. A FEW OF THE
THUNDERSTORMS WILL HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE MICROBURST TYPE
WIND DAMAGE. THE STORMS WILL ALSO BE SLOW MOVING WHICH WILL ENHANCE
THE POTENTIAL FOR FLASH FLOODING. FOR MORE INFORMATION...SEE THE
SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK (SPSGSP) ISSUED AT 427 AM.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...

SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED EACH DAY. A FEW OF THE
THUNDERSTORMS COULD PRODUCE DAMAGING WIND GUSTS AND LARGE HAIL ON
ANY GIVEN DAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED.

MOORE

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jul 17, 11:26 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Franklin	49 min
Jul 18, 12:23 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	Habersham	3 hr
Jul 18, 1:07 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	Franklin	3 hr

Nearby

Flash Flood Warnings in Georgia, 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.