Alert archive / Virginia / Tornado Warnings in 2003

Tornado Warning 1, NWS Blacksburg, VA

May 9, 2003Buckingham County, Virginia

NWS Blacksburg, VA issued this tornado warning at May 9, 2003, 2:59 PM EDT for Buckingham County, Virginia. It was in force for 31 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 9, 2003, 2:59 PM EDT (18:59 UTC)
Expired: May 9, 2003, 3:30 PM EDT
In force: 31 min
Issued by: NWS Blacksburg, VA
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County Buckingham County, VA

The radar

The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 131 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 19:00 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 watch it was issued in

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

Issued	Product	Office	Lasted
May 9, 2:05 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	6 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Roanoke, VA (KRNK), launched 12:00Z, 7.0 hours before the alert went out and 122 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: 59 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -186 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 982 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 47 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 153 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 199 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 
WFUS51 KRNK 091859 CCA
TORRNK
VAC029-091930-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING...CORRECTED TO INCLUDE COUNTY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BLACKSBURG VA
254 PM EDT FRI MAY 9 2003

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN BLACKSBURG HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  NORTHEASTERN BUCKINGHAM COUNTY IN CENTRAL VIRGINIA

* UNTIL 330 PM EDT.

* AT 254 PM EDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  DEVELOPING TORNADO 7 MILES WEST OF BREMO BLUFF...MOVING SOUTHEAST
  AT 45 MPH.



<<CALL TO ACTION>>THIS TORNADO WARNING REPLACES THE SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM WARNING WHICH WAS IN EFFECT FOR THE SAME AREA. GO TO A
BASEMENT OR SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR

<<CALL TO ACTION>>THE TORNADO MAY BE WRAPPED IN RAIN AND NOT VISIBLE.
GET TO A PLACE OF SAFETY NOW.

RELAY SEVERE WEATHER REPORTS TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BY
CALLING TOLL FREE...1...8 6 6...2 1 5...4 3 2 4.

LAT...LON 3785 7838 3772 7853 3731 7805 3747 7786

$$

07

The office that day

Everything else NWS Blacksburg, VA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 9, 2:45 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Buckingham	30 min
May 9, 2:51 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Alleghany, Craig	24 min
May 9, 3:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Botetourt	23 min
May 9, 3:31 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Bedford	29 min
May 9, 3:53 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Bedford	37 min
May 9, 4:07 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Campbell	23 min
May 9, 4:11 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Roanoke, City of Roanoke, City of Salem	34 min
May 9, 4:21 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Pittsylvania	24 min
May 9, 4:28 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	RNK	Halifax, Pittsylvania	47 min
May 9, 4:30 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Campbell	30 min
May 9, 4:46 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Bedford	29 min
May 9, 5:01 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Halifax	29 min
May 9, 5:04 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Pittsylvania	26 min
May 9, 5:41 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RNK	Halifax	34 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Virginia, 2003 Every tornado warning in 2003 Tornadoes 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.