Alert archive / South Carolina / Mesoscale Discussions in 2003

Mesoscale Discussion 301

March 20, 2003Bladen County, Columbus County, Pender County, North Carolina; 4 counties in South Carolina

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Mar 20, 2003, 2:16 AM EST for Bladen County, Columbus County, Pender County, North Carolina; 4 counties in South Carolina. It was in force for 119 min.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Mar 20, 2003, 2:16 AM EST (07:16 UTC)
Expired: Mar 20, 2003, 4:15 AM EST
In force: 119 min
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

Counties Bladen County, NC, Columbus County, NC, Pender County, NC, Georgetown County, SC, Horry County, SC, Marion County, SC, Williamsburg County, SC

The radar

The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 43 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 07:15 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

Charleston AFB, SC (KCHS), launched 00:00Z, 7.3 hours before the alert went out and 156 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: 7 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -255 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 516 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 61 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 257 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 364 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 2.3

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

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SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Mar 20, 5:48 AM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus	117 min
Mar 20, 10:10 AM EST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Columbus, Craven and 10 more	5 hr
Mar 20, 10:40 AM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bladen, Columbus, Craven, Duplin, Greene and 10 more	2 hr
Mar 20, 12:52 PM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Brunswick, Chowan, Craven, Jones and 7 more	113 min
Mar 19, 7:04 PM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allendale, Beaufort, Colleton, Hampton, Jasper	116 min
Mar 19, 7:15 PM EST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Beaufort, Jasper	4 hr
Mar 19, 8:58 PM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun, Chester and 19 more	3 hr
Mar 20, 12:20 AM EST	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Abbeville, Aiken, Anderson, Barnwell, Calhoun, Chester and 19 more	4 hr
Mar 20, 3:06 AM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allendale, Bamberg	54 min
Mar 20, 3:40 AM EST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Allendale, Bamberg, Berkeley, Colleton, Dorchester, Hampton and 1 more	5 hr
Mar 20, 6:12 AM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allendale, Bamberg, Colleton, Dorchester, Hampton, Jasper	2 hr
Mar 20, 8:40 AM EST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Hampton and 1 more	6 hr
Mar 20, 2:35 PM EST	Tornado Watch	SPC	Allendale, Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Hampton and 1 more	6 hr
Mar 20, 4:21 PM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Hampton and 1 more	114 min
Mar 20, 6:57 PM EST	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Beaufort, Charleston, Colleton and 3 more	2 hr

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in South Carolina, 2003 Mesoscale Discussions in North Carolina, 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.