Alert archive / North Carolina / Flash Flood Warnings in 2003

Flash Flood Warning 77, NWS Raleigh, NC

August 10, 2003Wake County, North Carolina

NWS Raleigh, NC issued this flash flood warning at Aug 10, 2003, 11:50 AM EDT for Wake County, North Carolina. It was in force for 115 min. 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 10, 2003, 11:50 AM EDT (15:50 UTC)
Expired: Aug 10, 2003, 1:45 PM EDT
In force: 115 min
Issued by: NWS Raleigh, NC
Area: Whole counties

County Wake County, NC

The radar

The Raleigh/Durham radar (KRAX), 20 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 15:54 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, 3.8 hours before the alert went out and 117 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: 627 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -58 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 647 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 18 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
WGUS52 KRAH 101552
FFWRAH
NCC183-101745-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RALEIGH NC
1150 AM EDT SUN AUG 10 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RALEIGH HAS ISSUED A

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

* UNTIL 145 PM EDT

* AT 1150 AM EDT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED    
  THUNDERSTORMS WITH VERY HEAVY RAIN FROM HOLLY SPRINGS NORTH ACROSS 
  RALEIGH. 

* THUNDERSTORMS ARE AND FLOODING CAN BE EXPECTED AROUND...  
  RALEIGH.
  LAKE WHEELER.
  HOLLY SPRINGS.
  AND GARNER.

EXCESSIVE RUNOFF FROM THIS STORM WILL CAUSE FLASH FLOODING OF CREEKS 
AND STREAMS...HIGHWAYS...STREETS AND UNDERPASSES. DO NOT DRIVE YOUR 
VEHICLE INTO AREAS WHERE THE WATER COVERS THE ROADWAY. VEHICLES 
CAUGHT IN RISING WATER SHOULD BE ABANDONED.

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.

NEVER ALLOW CHILDREN TO PLAY NEAR STORM DRAINS OR NEAR FLOODED CREEKS
AND STREAMS. EXCESSIVE RUNOFF WILL CREATE RAPIDLY FLOWING WATER THAT 
CAN EASILY SWEEP A CHILD DOWNSTREAM. 

$$

04

1 follow-up statement

000 
WGUS72 KRAH 101655
FFSRAH
NCC183-101800-

FLASH FLOOD STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RALEIGH NC
1253 PM EDT SUN AUG 10 2003

...THE FLASH FLOOD WARNING WHICH WAS IN EFFECT FOR CENTRAL WAKE
COUNTY HAS BEEN CANCELED...

AT 1248 PM EDT DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED THAT HEAVY RAIN OVER CENTRAL 
WAKE COUNTY HAD MOVED EAST OF THE AREA. LOCATIONS IN AND AROUND 
RALEIGH WILL EXPERIENCE A BREAK IN THE RAINFALL FOR AT LEAST THE 
NEXT ONE TO TWO HOURS. 

SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE ACROSS THE AREA 
THROUGH THE AFTERNOON. SOME OF THESE THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTAIN 
HEAVY RAIN LATER THIS AFTERNOON.

$$

04

The office that day

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

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Aug 9, 8:16 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Orange	119 min
Aug 9, 9:42 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Durham	93 min
Aug 9, 9:56 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Davidson	94 min
Aug 10, 12:17 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Randolph	118 min
Aug 10, 12:35 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Montgomery	100 min
Aug 10, 2:15 AM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Montgomery, Randolph	3 hr
Aug 10, 5:33 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Moore	87 min
Aug 10, 5:43 PM EDT	Flash Flood Warning	RAH	Harnett	2 hr

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.