Alert archive / West Virginia / Tornado Watches in 2003

Tornado Watch 343

May 10, 20034 states

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 10, 2003, 6:30 PM EDT for 4 states. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 10, 2003, 6:30 PM EDT (22:30 UTC)
Expired: May 11, 2003, 12:00 AM EDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 38 counties

Boyd County, KY, Breathitt County, KY, Carter County, KY, Elliott County, KY, Floyd County, KY, Greenup County, KY, Johnson County, KY, Knott County, KY, Lawrence County, KY, Lewis County, KY, Magoffin County, KY, Martin County, KY, Menifee County, KY, Morgan County, KY, Pike County, KY, Rowan County, KY, Wolfe County, KY, Lawrence County, OH, Giles County, VA, Boone County, WV, Cabell County, WV, Clay County, WV, Fayette County, WV, Greenbrier County, WV, Kanawha County, WV, Lincoln County, WV, Logan County, WV, McDowell County, WV, Mercer County, WV, Mingo County, WV, Monroe County, WV, Nicholas County, WV, Putnam County, WV, Raleigh County, WV, Summers County, WV, Wayne County, WV, Webster County, WV, Wyoming County, WV

The radar

The Charleston,WV radar (KRLX), 57 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 22:33 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.

Warnings issued inside it

2 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 10, 6:43 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	RLX	Lawrence	32 min
May 10, 7:01 PM EDT	Tornado Warning	RLX	Lawrence	29 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

The nearest sounding before it

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), launched 12:00Z, 10.5 hours before the alert went out and 189 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: 149 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -36 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 754 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 66 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -29 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 14 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: -0.1

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

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

000 
WWUS20 KWNS 102224
SEL3  
SPC WW 102230
KYZ000-WVZ000-110400-

URGENT - IMMEDIATE BROADCAST REQUESTED
TORNADO WATCH NUMBER 343 
NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 
630 PM EDT SAT MAY 10 2003

THE NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER HAS ISSUED A
TORNADO WATCH FOR PORTIONS OF 

       EASTERN KENTUCKY
       CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA

EFFECTIVE THIS SATURDAY NIGHT FROM 630 PM UNTIL MIDNIGHT EDT.

TORNADOES...HAIL TO 2 INCHES IN DIAMETER...THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS
TO 70 MPH...AND DANGEROUS LIGHTNING ARE POSSIBLE IN THESE AREAS.

THE TORNADO WATCH AREA IS ALONG AND 50 STATUTE MILES NORTH AND
SOUTH OF A LINE FROM 40 MILES NORTH NORTHWEST OF JACKSON KENTUCKY
TO 40 MILES EAST NORTHEAST OF BECKLEY WEST VIRGINIA.

REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS CONDITIONS ARE FAVORABLE FOR
TORNADOES AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS IN AND CLOSE TO THE WATCH AREA.
PERSONS IN THESE AREAS SHOULD BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR THREATENING
WEATHER CONDITIONS AND LISTEN FOR LATER STATEMENTS AND POSSIBLE
WARNINGS.

OTHER WATCH INFORMATION...THIS TORNADO WATCH REPLACES TORNADO
WATCH NUMBER 339. WATCH NUMBER 339 WILL NOT BE IN EFFECT AFTER 630
PM EDT. CONTINUE...WW 337...WW 338...WW 340...WW 341...WW 342...


DISCUSSION...CLUSTER OF SEVERE STORMS OVER NORTHEAST KY AND ALONG
THE OH RIVER IN WV WILL TRACK EASTWARD FOR A FEW MORE HOURS BEFORE
WEAKENING.  INTERACTIONS WITH THE WARM FRONT...COUPLED WITH
WARM/MOIST/UNSTABLE AIRMASS SOUTH OF FRONT...WITH MAINTAIN THE RISK
OF ISOLATED TORNADOES.

AVIATION...TORNADOES AND A FEW SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HAIL
SURFACE AND ALOFT TO 2 INCHES. EXTREME TURBULENCE AND SURFACE WIND
GUSTS TO 60 KNOTS. A FEW CUMULONIMBI WITH MAXIMUM TOPS TO 500.
MEAN STORM MOTION VECTOR 27035.


...HART

384,0833 384,0802 371,0802 372,0833

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 10, 4:33 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Anderson, Bath, Boone, Bourbon, Boyd, Bracken and 45 more	87 min
May 10, 10:25 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Breckinridge, Daviess, Hancock, Henderson, McLean, Union and 1 more	2 hr
May 10, 11:12 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Greenup, Harrison, Kenton and 4 more	2 hr
May 10, 11:54 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Ballard, Boone, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Henderson and 4 more	66 min
May 10, 12:00 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant and 5 more	5 hr
May 10, 12:41 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Harlan, Jackson and 13 more	2 hr
May 10, 1:20 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bell, Boyd, Breathitt, Carter, Clay, Elliott and 19 more	6 hr
May 10, 2:04 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Boone, Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant and 5 more	86 min
May 10, 3:27 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bell, Boyd, Breathitt, Carter, Clay, Elliott and 20 more	93 min
May 10, 3:46 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Boyd, Bracken, Campbell, Fleming, Grant, Greenup and 6 more	59 min
May 10, 5:56 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Boyd, Breathitt, Carter, Elliott, Floyd, Greenup and 10 more	94 min
May 9, 8:57 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Athens, Hocking, Meigs	63 min
May 9, 11:40 PM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Allen, Defiance, Fulton, Hancock, Henry, Lucas and 5 more	5 hr
May 10, 2:31 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bedford, Brunswick, Campbell, Charlotte, Franklin, Greensville and 14 more	89 min
May 10, 3:15 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bedford, Brunswick, Campbell, Charlotte, Craig, Dinwiddie and 18 more	6 hr
May 10, 4:46 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bedford, Brunswick, Campbell, Charlotte, Craig, Floyd and 16 more	89 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in West Virginia, 2003 Tornado Watches in Kentucky, 2003 Tornado Watches in Ohio, 2003 Every tornado watch 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.