Alert archive / Virginia / Mesoscale Discussions in 2003

Mesoscale Discussion 2341

September 3, 2003Sussex County, Delaware; 11 counties in Maryland; 84 counties in Virginia

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Sep 3, 2003, 1:53 PM EDT for Sussex County, Delaware; 11 counties in Maryland; 84 counties in Virginia. It was in force for 3 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Sep 3, 2003, 1:53 PM EDT (17:53 UTC)
Expired: Sep 3, 2003, 4:30 PM EDT
In force: 3 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 96 counties

Sussex County, DE, Anne Arundel County, MD, Calvert County, MD, Caroline County, MD, Charles County, MD, Dorchester County, MD, Montgomery County, MD, Prince George's County, MD, Saint Mary's County, MD, Somerset County, MD, Talbot County, MD, Wicomico County, MD, Accomack County, VA, Albemarle County, VA, Amelia County, VA, Amherst County, VA, Appomattox County, VA, Arlington County, VA, Bedford County, VA, Buckingham County, VA, Campbell County, VA, Caroline County, VA, Charles City County, VA, Charlotte County, VA, Chesterfield County, VA, City of Alexandria, VA, City of Buena Vista, VA, City of Charlottesville, VA, City of Colonial Heights, VA, City of Fairfax, VA, City of Falls Church, VA, City of Fredericksburg, VA, City of Hampton, VA, City of Hopewell, VA, City of Lynchburg, VA, City of Manassas, VA, City of Manassas Park, VA, City of Martinsville, VA, City of Newport News, VA, City of Norfolk, VA, City of Petersburg, VA, City of Poquoson, VA, City of Portsmouth, VA, City of Richmond, VA, City of Staunton, VA, City of Waynesboro, VA, City of Williamsburg, VA, Clarke County, VA, Culpeper County, VA, Cumberland County, VA, Dinwiddie County, VA, Essex County, VA, Fairfax County, VA, Fauquier County, VA, Fluvanna County, VA, Franklin County, VA, Gloucester County, VA, Goochland County, VA, Greene County, VA, Halifax County, VA, Hanover County, VA, Henrico County, VA, Isle of Wight County, VA, James City County, VA, King and Queen County, VA, King George County, VA, King William County, VA, Lancaster County, VA, Loudoun County, VA, Louisa County, VA, Lunenburg County, VA, Madison County, VA, Mathews County, VA, Middlesex County, VA, Nelson County, VA, New Kent County, VA, Northampton County, VA, Northumberland County, VA, Nottoway County, VA, Orange County, VA, Page County, VA, Patrick County, VA, Pittsylvania County, VA, Powhatan County, VA, Prince Edward County, VA, Prince George County, VA, Prince William County, VA, Rappahannock County, VA, Richmond County, VA, Spotsylvania County, VA, Stafford County, VA, Surry County, VA, Sussex County, VA, Warren County, VA, Westmoreland County, VA, York County, VA

The radar

The Norfolk radar (KAKQ), 113 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 17:54 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

Wallops Is Stn, VA (KWAL), launched 12:00Z, 5.9 hours before the alert went out and 229 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: 1724 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -21 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 588 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 45 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 83 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.4
Supercell composite: 2.4

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
  <title>Service Notice</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="index.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main class="wrap">
    <section class="card" role="status" aria-live="polite">
      <div class="status" id="status">Temporary Notice</div>
      <h1 id="headline">This service is currently unavailable.</h1>
      <p id="message1">
        The site you requested is temporarily down for maintenance or an unexpected outage.
      </p>
      <p id="message2">
        Please try again in a few minutes.
      </p>
      <p class="small" id="detail">
        If you are an administrator, restore upstream service and remove the redirect/fallback rule when normal operations resume.
      </p>
    </section>
  </main>
  <script src="index.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Sep 3, 7:27 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Frederick, Howard, Montgomery, Washington	93 min

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in Virginia, 2003 Mesoscale Discussions in Maryland, 2003 Mesoscale Discussions in Delaware, 2003 Every mesoscale discussion 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.