Alert archive / South Carolina / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 2003

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 94, NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC

May 6, 2003Anderson County, South Carolina

NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 6, 2003, 2:31 PM EDT for Anderson County, South Carolina. It was in force for 29 min. No storm report in the archive falls inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 6, 2003, 2:31 PM EDT (18:31 UTC)
Expired: May 6, 2003, 3:00 PM EDT
In force: 29 min
Issued by: NWS Greenville-Spartanburg, SC
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County Anderson County, SC

The radar

The Greer radar (KGSP), 77 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 18:34 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.

Did it verify

Not verified. The Iowa Environmental Mesonet's Cow found no qualifying storm report inside this severe thunderstorm warning while it was in force. That is not proof nothing happened: reports are thin where few people live.

Cow counts a report within 15 km of the polygon while the warning was in force: a tornado for a tornado warning; hail of 1 inch or more, a gust of 58 mph or more or wind damage for a severe thunderstorm warning; a flash flood report for a flash flood warning.

The watch it was issued in

The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
May 6, 1:30 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	7 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), launched 12:00Z, 6.5 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: 386 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -36 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 521 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 64 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 191 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 264 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 3.0

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
WUUS52 KGSP 061831
SVRGSP
SCC007-061900-

BULLETIN - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
230 PM EDT TUE MAY 6 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
  SOUTHERN ANDERSON COUNTY IN UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

* UNTIL 300 PM EDT

* AT 230 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE
  THUNDERSTORM 8 MILES SOUTHEAST OF HARTWELL...OR ABOUT 9 MILES WEST
  OF IVA...MOVING EAST AT 45 MPH.

* THE SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WILL BE NEAR...
  IVA AT 240 PM EDT.

PEOPLE IN THE PATH OF THIS SEVERE THUNDERSTORM SHOULD BE ALERT FOR
LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. FREQUENT LIGHTNING AND LOCALLY HEAVY
RAIN CAN OCCUR WITH ANY THUNDERSTORM.

LAT...LON 3438 8283 3437 8249 3421 8275

$$

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm 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 severe thunderstorm warning went out at May 6, 10:32 AM EDT, 3 hours 59 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 6, 10:32 AM EDT, 3 hours 59 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
1032 AM EDT TUE MAY 6 2003

AT 14Z...CWFA LOOKS TO BE SOUTH OF MAIN SYNOPTIC SCALE BNDRY...WITH
SSW SFC WINDS AT MOST STATIONS. AMOUNT OF DESTABILIZATION THIS
AFTERNOON STILL QUITE UNCERTAIN WITH ENCROACHING CLDS AND PCPN
THANKS TO APPROACHING MCS. 12Z 850 MB ANALYSIS DOES INDICATE
A FAVORABLE THERMAL/MOISTURE PROFILE FOR DESTABILIZATION...ROUGHLY
ALONG NEW SPC DAY 1 SLT RISK...THRU NE GA...THE UPSTATE TO AROUND
CLT METRO. WILL UPDATE SVR WX OUTLOOK TO REFINE CURRENT THINKING...
FOR A THREAT A FEW LATE DAY OR EVENING SVR STORMS. WILL MENTION
THREAT OF BOTH DAMAGING WIND AND LARGE HAIL...BUT NOT TERRIBLY
IMPRESSED WITH PARAMETERS FOR EITHER OF THESE WITH HIGH WBZ
HEIGHTS AND LOW THETA-E LAPSES GIVEN MOIST SNDGS. ALSO PLAN ON
NOT MAKING CHGS TO GOING FLOOD WATCH ALTHOUGH OBVIOUS SHORT
TERM THREAT WILL REMAIN LIMITED TO THE MOUNTAINS GIVEN LARGE
SCALE PATTERN OF BROAD WSW FLOW.

FCSTID = 55
GSP   78  63  82  62 /  90  40  40  40
AND   79  63  83  61 /  90  40  40  40
CLT   80  62  83  62 /  90  40  40  40
HKY   76  61  80  61 / 100  40  40  40
AVL   73  58  78  57 / 100  50  50  40

.GSP...
GA...FLOOD WATCH FOR TODAY GAZ010-017>018-GAZ026-GAZ028>029.
NC...FLOOD WATCH FOR TODAY NCZ033>037-048>059-062>072-082.
SC...FLOOD WATCH FOR TODAY SCZ001>014-019.

Hazardous weather outlook, May 6, 4:40 AM EDT, 9 hours 51 minutes before

GAZ010-017-018-026-028-029-NCZ033>037-048>059-062>072-082-SCZ001>014-
019-061100-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
440 AM EDT TUE MAY 6 2003

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

.DAY ONE...TODAY

SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE TODAY...SOME WITH
TORNADOES...LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...

THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. SOME MAY BECOME
SEVERE...ESPECIALLY LATE AFTERNOON THROUGH EVENING.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL BE LIKELY TODAY.

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 6, 10:47 AM EDT, 3 hours 44 minutes before

GAZ010-017-018-026-028-029-NCZ033>037-048>059-062>072-082-SCZ001>014-
019-062100-

SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE-SPARTANBURG SC
1047 AM EDT TUE MAY 6 2003

...SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE LATER TODAY OR TONIGHT...

WIDESPREAD RAIN WITH A FEW EMBEDDED THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE
TO MOVE ACROSS THE WESTERN CAROLINAS AND EXTREME NORTHEAST GEORGIA
INTO THE EARLY AFTERNOON HOURS. THIS COVERAGE OF PRECIPITATION WILL
SLOW WARMING AND DEGREE OF DESTABILIZATION. RAIN IS EXPECTED TO
DIMINISH LATER THIS AFTERNOON...POSSIBLY FOLLOWED BY SOME CLEARING.
IF RAIN ENDS AND CLEARING OCCURS SOON ENOUGH...THE ATMOSPHERE COULD
BECOME UNSTABLE ENOUGH TO SUPPORT SEVERE THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT...
WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WIND BEING THE BIGGEST THREAT.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO OR YOUR FAVORITE MEDIA OUTLET FOR
THE LATEST UPDATES CONCERNING THIS POTENTIAL SEVERE WEATHER
SITUATION.

FOR ADDITIONAL WEATHER INFORMATION...CHECK OUR WEB SITE AT
WWW.ERH.NOAA.GOV/GSP

Local storm report, May 6, 2:20 PM EDT, 11 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE SPARTANBURG SC
220 PM EDT TUE MAY 06 2003

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

203 PM     SANDY CROSS               GA   TORNADO
05/06/03   FRANKLIN                       EOC REPORTED TORNADO
                                          TOUCHED DOWN NEAR SANDY
                                          SPRINGS ON HWY 51 AT
                                          BRAYS LAKE. BUILDING
                                          LEVELED AND TREES DOWN.

TJB

Local storm report, May 6, 2:20 PM EDT, 11 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GREENVILLE SPARTANBURG SC
220 PM EDT TUE MAY 06 2003

TIME(EDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

203 PM     SANDY CROSS               GA   TORNADO
05/06/03   FRANKLIN                       EOC REPORTED TORNADO
                                          TOUCHED DOWN NEAR SANDY
                                          CROSS ON HWY 51 AT BRAYS
                                          LAKE. BUILDING LEVELED,
                                          COUPLE OTHER HOMES DAMAGED,
                                          AND TREES DOWN.

TJB

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 5, 11:19 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Oconee	41 min
May 6, 12:33 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Greenville, Spartanburg	42 min
May 6, 2:57 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	GSP	York	3 hr
May 6, 2:35 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	GSP	Abbeville	55 min
May 6, 3:08 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Greenwood	52 min
May 6, 3:21 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Laurens, Spartanburg	39 min
May 6, 3:35 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Union	40 min
May 6, 3:52 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Chester	53 min
May 6, 4:20 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	York	25 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in South Carolina, 2003 Every severe thunderstorm 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.