Alert archive / North Carolina / Severe Thunderstorm Watches in 2004

Severe Thunderstorm Watch 351

May 31, 200427 counties in North Carolina; 8 counties in South Carolina; 15 counties in Virginia

The Storm Prediction Center issued this severe thunderstorm watch at May 31, 2004, 5:50 AM EDT for 27 counties in North Carolina; 8 counties in South Carolina; 15 counties in Virginia. It was in force for 5 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 31, 2004, 5:50 AM EDT (09:50 UTC)
Expired: May 31, 2004, 11:00 AM EDT
In force: 5 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center

All 50 counties

Alamance County, NC, Alexander County, NC, Anson County, NC, Cabarrus County, NC, Caswell County, NC, Catawba County, NC, Cleveland County, NC, Davidson County, NC, Davie County, NC, Forsyth County, NC, Gaston County, NC, Guilford County, NC, Iredell County, NC, Lincoln County, NC, Mecklenburg County, NC, Montgomery County, NC, Orange County, NC, Person County, NC, Randolph County, NC, Rockingham County, NC, Rowan County, NC, Stanly County, NC, Stokes County, NC, Surry County, NC, Union County, NC, Wilkes County, NC, Yadkin County, NC, Cherokee County, SC, Chester County, SC, Chesterfield County, SC, Lancaster County, SC, Laurens County, SC, Spartanburg County, SC, Union County, SC, York County, SC, Campbell County, VA, Carroll County, VA, Charlotte County, VA, City of Danville, VA, City of Martinsville, VA, City of Roanoke, VA, City of Salem, VA, Floyd County, VA, Franklin County, VA, Halifax County, VA, Henry County, VA, Montgomery County, VA, Patrick County, VA, Pittsylvania County, VA, Prince Edward County, VA

The radar

The Greer radar (KGSP), 154 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 09:51 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 31, 7:18 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	RAH	Davidson, Forsyth	42 min
May 31, 7:43 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GSP	Gaston, Mecklenburg	47 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

Greensboro/Hi Pt, NC (KGSO), launched 00:00Z, 9.8 hours before the alert went out and 96 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: 504 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -52 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1119 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 84 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 149 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.1
Supercell composite: 1.2

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
May 31, 1:40 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Avery, Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood and 8 more	5 hr
May 31, 4:40 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Avery, Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood and 8 more	95 min
May 31, 7:56 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Alamance, Anson, Cabarrus, Caswell, Davidson, Davie and 13 more	2 hr
May 31, 9:10 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Alamance, Anson, Cabarrus, Chatham, Cumberland, Davidson and 23 more	5 hr
May 31, 11:18 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumberland, New Hanover, Pender and 3 more	27 min
May 31, 11:40 AM EDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Bladen, Columbus	6 hr
May 31, 12:46 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Robeson, Sampson	29 min
May 31, 2:27 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bladen, Columbus	63 min
May 31, 3:50 PM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Camden, Currituck, Pasquotank	6 hr
May 31, 12:40 AM EDT	Tornado Watch	SPC	Bland, Buchanan, Carroll, Dickenson, Giles, Grayson and 12 more	5 hr
May 31, 2:40 AM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Bland, Buchanan, Dickenson, Giles, Grayson, Lee and 11 more	2 hr
May 31, 2:53 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Accomack, Amelia, Caroline, Charles City, Chesterfield, Culpeper and 51 more	37 min
May 31, 7:17 PM EDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Accomack, Albemarle, Arlington, Caroline, Culpeper, Essex and 31 more	118 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Watches in North Carolina, 2004 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in Virginia, 2004 Severe Thunderstorm Watches in South Carolina, 2004 Every severe thunderstorm watch 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.