Alert archive / North Carolina / Mesoscale Discussions in 2004

Mesoscale Discussion 2230

September 17, 200430 counties in North Carolina; 4 counties in South Carolina; 15 counties in Virginia

The Storm Prediction Center issued this mesoscale discussion at Sep 17, 2004, 9:26 AM EDT for 30 counties in North Carolina; 4 counties in South Carolina; 15 counties in Virginia. It was in force for 2 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: Sep 17, 2004, 9:26 AM EDT (13:26 UTC)
Expired: Sep 17, 2004, 11:30 AM EDT
In force: 2 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 49 counties

Alamance County, NC, Anson County, NC, Bladen County, NC, Caswell County, NC, Chatham County, NC, Cumberland County, NC, Davidson County, NC, Durham County, NC, Forsyth County, NC, Franklin County, NC, Granville County, NC, Guilford County, NC, Harnett County, NC, Hoke County, NC, Johnston County, NC, Lee County, NC, Montgomery County, NC, Moore County, NC, Orange County, NC, Person County, NC, Randolph County, NC, Richmond County, NC, Robeson County, NC, Rockingham County, NC, Sampson County, NC, Scotland County, NC, Stokes County, NC, Vance County, NC, Wake County, NC, Warren County, NC, Darlington County, SC, Dillon County, SC, Florence County, SC, Marlboro County, SC, Bedford County, VA, Campbell County, VA, Charlotte County, VA, City of Danville, VA, City of Lynchburg, VA, City of Martinsville, VA, Franklin County, VA, Halifax County, VA, Henry County, VA, Lunenburg County, VA, Mecklenburg County, VA, Nottoway County, VA, Patrick County, VA, Pittsylvania County, VA, Prince Edward County, VA

The radar

The Raleigh/Durham radar (KRAX), 93 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 13:27 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 watches that followed

Watches SPC issued over any of the same counties within four hours of this discussion.

The nearest sounding before it

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), launched 12:00Z, 1.4 hours before the alert went out and 48 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: 888 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 551 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 237 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 297 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 1.0
Supercell composite: 5.5

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
Sep 16, 8:45 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Cabarrus, Cleveland, Gaston, Lincoln, Mecklenburg, Polk and 1 more	6 hr
Sep 16, 11:42 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Gaston, Mecklenburg	2 hr
Sep 17, 1:51 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alexander, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland, Gaston and 6 more	84 min
Sep 17, 10:10 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Alamance, Anson, Bladen, Brunswick, Caswell, Chatham and 37 more	7 hr
Sep 17, 11:03 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Bertie, Caswell, Chatham, Cumberland, Durham and 26 more	87 min
Sep 17, 12:33 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Craven, Gates and 8 more	117 min
Sep 17, 1:15 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Carteret, Chowan, Craven and 18 more	7 hr
Sep 17, 1:37 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Bladen, Brunswick, Caswell, Chatham, Columbus and 29 more	113 min
Sep 17, 3:53 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Craven, Edgecombe and 11 more	2 hr
Sep 17, 4:01 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, Duplin, Franklin and 6 more	59 min
Sep 17, 4:35 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Duplin, Edgecombe, Franklin and 14 more	3 hr
Sep 17, 6:19 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Beaufort, Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Craven, Currituck and 13 more	116 min
Sep 17, 6:50 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bertie, Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Gates, Hertford and 3 more	5 hr
Sep 17, 7:23 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Duplin, Edgecombe, Greene, Halifax, Lenoir, Nash and 4 more	37 min
Sep 17, 3:50 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Clarke, Frederick, Loudoun, City of Winchester	4 hr

Nearby

Mesoscale Discussions in North Carolina, 2004 Mesoscale Discussions in Virginia, 2004 Mesoscale Discussions in South Carolina, 2004 Every mesoscale discussion in 2004

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.