Alert archive / North Carolina / Flash Flood Warnings in 2003

Flash Flood Warning 63, NWS Raleigh, NC

August 8, 2003Richmond County, North Carolina

NWS Raleigh, NC issued this flash flood warning at Aug 8, 2003, 7:55 PM EDT for Richmond County, North Carolina. It was in force for 2 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: Aug 8, 2003, 7:55 PM EDT (23:55 UTC)
Expired: Aug 8, 2003, 10:00 PM EDT
In force: 2 hr
Issued by: NWS Raleigh, NC
Area: Whole counties

County Richmond County, NC

The radar

The Raleigh/Durham radar (KRAX), 136 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 23:54 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, 11.9 hours before the alert went out and 120 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: 810 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -17 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 590 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 98 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 117 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 1.6

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
WGUS52 KRAH 082358
FFWRAH
NCC153-090200-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RALEIGH NC
755 PM EDT FRI AUG 8 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RALEIGH HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
  RICHMOND COUNTY IN CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA

* UNTIL 1000 PM EDT

* AT 755 PM EDT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED
  THUNDERSTORMS WITH VERY HEAVY RAIN OVER NORTHERN RICHMOND COUNTY.
  ABOUT 3 INCHES OF RAIN AS FALLEN OVER THE NORTHERN SECTIONS OF
  RICHMOND COUNTY SINCE 630 PM. AN ADDITIONAL INCH OF RAIN IS 
  LIKELY THROUGH 9 PM.  

* THE SLOW MOVING THUNDERSTORMS WILL PRODUCE FLOODING AROUND...
  ELLERBE AND ALONG LITTLE MOUNTAIN CREEK AS WELL AS ALONG NAKED
  CREEK EAST OF NORMAN.

MOST FLOOD DEATHS OCCUR IN AUTOMOBILES. NEVER DRIVE YOUR VEHICLE INTO
AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE ROADWAY. THE WATER IS USUALLY DEEPER
THAN IT APPEARS. JUST ONE FOOT OF FLOWING WATER IS POWERFUL ENOUGH TO
SWEEP MOST VEHICLES OFF THE ROAD. VEHICLES CAUGHT IN RISING WATER
SHOULD BE ABANDONED.

$$

WSS

1 follow-up statement

000 
WGUS72 KRAH 090143
FFSRAH
NCC153-090200-

FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RALEIGH NC
940 PM EDT FRI AUG 8 2003

...A FLASH FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES IN EFFECT FOR RICHMOND COUNTY 
UNTIL 10 PM EDT...

AT 940 PM EDT DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED SLOW MOVING THUNDERSTORMS OVER 
NORTHERN RICHMOND COUNTY HAVE DIMINISHED.

THE 911 CENTER IN RICHMOND COUNTY HAS RECEIVED NO REPORTS OF HIGH 
WATER OR FLOODING IN NORTHERN RICHMOND COUNTY.  THEREFORE...THE 
WARNING WILL BE ALLOWED TO EXPIRE AT 10 PM.

HOWEVER... LITTLE MOUNTAIN CREEK NORTHWEST OF ELLERBE...AND NAKED 
CREEK EAST OF NORMAN WILL LIKELY NEAR BANKFULL.  PEOPLE NEAR THESE 
CREEKS NEED TO MONITOR WATER LEVELS THROUGH 1030 PM.

ADDITIONAL SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS MAY THREATEN RICHMOND COUNTY 
AFTER 10 PM.  IF HEAVY RAIN DEVELOPS OVER THE COUNTY... THE FLASH 
FLOOD WARNING MAY NEED TO BE REISSUED.

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.

$$

WSS/MLM

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 7, 8:20 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Guilford	55 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.